President Trump has announced plans to request the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision that invalidated his executive order on birthright citizenship. The high court struck down the policy just last week.
In a statement posted on Truth Social, Trump referred to the ruling as a “miscarriage of justice” and expressed his determination to seek a rehearing from the Supreme Court. He emphasized the ruling could potentially endanger America unless it is overturned.
In a decision made on the last day of its term, the Supreme Court dismissed the executive order, which was one of Trump’s initial actions as president. The order stipulated that for a child born on U.S. soil to automatically gain citizenship, at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen or have permanent legal status.
The decision was backed by Chief Justice John Roberts, alongside conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Their ruling underscored that the 14th Amendment unequivocally guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States.
In his detailed 26-page opinion, Chief Justice Roberts highlighted, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh disagreed with the majority’s decision on whether the order violated the 14th Amendment but voted to block the policy under federal law mirroring its language.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. In his 39-page dissent, Alito wrote the court “made a serious mistake” in upholding birthright citizenship.
While losing parties can ask the high court to rehear cases, the justices rarely grant the request.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said in 2024 that the high court has not agreed to any rehearing of a ruling in an argued case since 1965 and has not agreed to a plenary rehearing since 1956.
“Instead, the principal significance of rehearing petitions with respect to merits rulings today is how they affect the timing of the remand to lower courts,” Vladeck wrote on his “One First” Substack.
Under federal law, losing parties must petition for the rehearing of a judgment or decision by the high court within 25 days of its entry, unless the court or a justice shortens or extends that timeframe.
“The time for filing a petition for the rehearing of an order denying a petition for a writ of certiorari or extraordinary writ will not be extended,” the law states.