President Donald J. Trump departs the Supreme Court after attending oral arguments in the landmark birthright citizenship case, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)

Congressional conservatives are slamming the Supreme Court of the United States after it ruled to strike down a request from the president to redefine birthright citizenship.

The 6-3 decision comes after President Donald Trump’s administration argued that the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applied to descendants of slaves in the 1800s, and not to the chain migration the United States has been subject to in recent decades.

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Brett Kavanaugh concurs in part in the judgment and dissents in part. Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissent.

“Neither the Founding Fathers, nor the authors of the 14th Amendment, nor the millions of Americans who fought and died for their country through the ages intended to establish a nation whose citizenship could so easily be purchased, whether through birth tourism of China’s communist party members or an invasion of millions enabled by faithless presidents,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told the Daily Signal.

The clause in the 14th Amendment attracted controversy after U.S. births from noncitizens, especially illegal aliens, increased tremendously in recent years. The U.S. Center for Immigration Studies has estimated that in 2023 alone, between 225,000 and 250,000 births stemmed directly from illegal immigration.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, expanded on Lee’s remarks and told the Daily Signal that the “Supreme Court failed the American people.”

“The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in no way stands for the proposition of creating a dangerous cottage industry of traveling to our soil to manufacture United States citizenship,” Roy continued. “The Supreme Court today should have said so explicitly and ended this damaging exploitation of our laws.”

Roy has now called on Congress to “immediately do at least two things it should have done long ago,” which include “defin[ing] the phrase ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ very specifically to make clear that citizenship is tied to the citizenship of the parent, not the soil,” and “completely restrict[ing] funding from DHS or any other agency or state that provides documentation and status to anyone not subject to the ‘jurisdiction thereof.’”

“In other words, Congress must act immediately and must not hide behind the fiction that it must amend the Constitution to fix this abuse of our laws,” Roy continued. “To do otherwise would be an abject failure of the United States Congress.”

Justice Alito is correct — today’s decision was a serious mistake by the Supreme Court.

That’s why Congress must fight to end birthright citizenship.

The 14th Amendment was never meant to reward illegal aliens for breaking our laws. pic.twitter.com/hXKPWr8JxQ

— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) June 30, 2026

In a statement to the Daily Signal, Rep. Keith Self added that the ruling comes as a “catastrophic defeat” to “every American citizen, our national sovereignty, and the very future of our Republic.”

Self added that “American citizenship is a sacred privilege—not a participation trophy handed out to those who violate our laws.”

“The 14th Amendment was never meant to reward illegal aliens with the priceless gift of U.S. citizenship for breaking into our country,” he continued.

The members remarks reflect those of the president.

Prior to the decision, President Donald Trump advocated against birthright citizenship, writing on Truth Social that “we are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”

‘Serious mistake’: U.S. Supreme Court rules against Trump on birthright citizenship, Thomas and Alito voice profound dissent

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]