Almost 7 in 10 say Supreme Court should keep birthright citizenship in place: Survey

Skip to content

Nearly 70 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University poll think the Supreme Court should keep birthright citizenship in place. The results come ahead of the high court’s ruling on the legality of President Trump’s executive order seeking to end the policy.

The survey, conducted between June 18 and 22, found that 69 percent of 1,165 self-identified registered voters believe the Supreme Court should keep in place its 1898 ruling affirming that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to those born in the U.S.

Less than 3 in 10 respondents (27 percent) said the high court should reverse its decision, while 4 percent did not know or did not answer.

Ninety-five percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents believe the Supreme Court should keep birthright citizenship in place by striking down Trump’s order as unconstitutional. Meanwhile, a little over half of Republicans surveyed said the high court should side with the Trump administration.

The telephone survey had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. Thirty percent of respondents said they were a registered Democrat, 26 percent said they were a Republican, 37 percent said they were an independent and 7 percent either did not know, did not answer or had another party affiliation.

Trump’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office last year, states the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

As a result, those born in the U.S. but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” should not receive citizenship at birth, the order says. Individuals born to parents who were not lawfully present in the U.S. — or had one parent with lawful but temporary residency in the country — are part of the aforementioned “not subject to the jurisdiction thereof” category under the order.

The American Civil Liberties Union, its state chapters and various left-leaning advocacy groups filed suit against Trump’s order last year. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in April, and multiple justices seemed skeptical of the legality of the president’s policy.

A decision on the case is expected by the end of June at the latest, as the high court is set to embark on its summer recess.

Ending birthright citizenship would result in roughly 255,000 babies born without U.S. citizenship each year, according to May 2025 estimates from the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State’s Population Research Institute.

Such a change in policy would also result in the population of undocumented migrants in the U.S. increasing by 2.7 million by 2045 and by 5.4 million by 2075, those estimates show.

Tags

Donald Trump

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.