The US Supreme Court’s landmark verdict striking down President Donald Trump’s Executive Order ending automatic birthright citizenship was as remarkable as its quashing, in February, of his tariff regime that roiled the global economy for close to a year. By doing so, a majority of the justices voted against whimsicality in governance. Trump had sought to snatch away a 150-year-old constitutional protection of citizenship by birth, arguing that the children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visitors were outside the ambit of the 14th Amendment. Interestingly, a couple of conservative judges—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh—went with the majority in the split verdict. Justice Kavanaugh, however, suggested that Trump could yet pull off the move if he chose the route of a constitutional amendment. But that would require approval by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the US states, which is next to impossible in the fractured American polity.
Trump was so invested in ending birthright citizenship that he took a front-row seat in the Supreme Court for a day in April during oral arguments challenging his diktat. Following the adverse verdict, he is said to have turned to Plan B: denying visas to pregnant women. Back-of-the-envelope calculations by researchers put the number of babies born to foreign visitors at 20,000-26,000 a year. Contrast that with the 3.6 million babies born in the US in 2025, and the noise over ‘birth tourism’ appears needless. Busting birth tourism rackets is a legitimate focus of governance; what is not is a blanket ban on birthright citizenship.
The judgement brought back the debate on who is an American and, hopefully, restored policy certainty in human mobility. The Indian diaspora heaved a sigh of relief, as lakhs of them live, study and work in the US on various visas. A large number has also been waiting for employment-based green cards because of country-wise caps on permanent residency.
The Supreme Court’s earlier decision on tariffs was also consequential for India. While Trump raged about not returning the estimated $166 billion his administration collected at the border, $22 billion in repayments were processed in May. Not surprisingly, India is wary of being bullied into an uneven trade deal.