The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear arguments in a case challenging President Donald Trump‘s executive order on birthright citizenship later this term.
In an order released Friday afternoon, the justices said they would take up for review Trump v. Barbara, a case originally brought in a federal court in New Hampshire by a group of people whose children could be affected by the order. The Justice Department filed petitions to the high court to hear the Barbara case and Trump v. Washington, a challenge brought by Democrat-led states, in September, arguing the justices should rule on the legality of the order.
“The government has a compelling interest in ensuring that American citizenship — the privilege that allows us to choose our political leaders — is granted only to those who are lawfully entitled to it,” the DOJ’s petition to the high court reads.
“The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” the filing continues. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”
According to Trump’s January executive order, birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment does not include children born on U.S. soil to parents who are in the country illegally or on a temporary basis, such as on a visa. The order has been rejected at various federal district and appeals courts across the country, with various injunctions preventing the order from taking effect since the president signed it.
The high court has been presented with the question of “whether the Executive Order complies on its face with the citizenship clause” of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court did not immediately schedule the case, but it is expected to be set for arguments sometime between February and April 2026, with a decision expected by the end of June 2026. The case will be a test of one of the Trump administration’s most controversial policies, with legal analysts and court observers predicting it will be a difficult legal fight for the administration at the high court.
The Friday order granting review of the case marks the latest major Trump action to be scrutinized by the high court this term. The Supreme Court heard arguments challenging the president’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs last month and will hear arguments over his ability to fire independent agency heads during oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter on Monday.
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The birthright citizenship order indirectly appeared before the justices earlier this year, when the high court reviewed a case about the legality of universal injunctions.
The case, Trump v. CASA, came to the Supreme Court via a fight over the scope of an injunction blocking the birthright citizenship order, but the merits of the executive order itself were not under review. Less than six months after the CASA ruling, the high court will review whether the executive order itself is constitutional.
