Trump says he’ll ask Supreme Court to rehear birthright citizenship case

President Trump said Wednesday he will ask the Supreme Court to rehear a case on the legality of his executive order restricting birthright citizenship, after the high court struck down the policy last week.

“I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the ruling.

On the final day of its term last week, the Supreme Court struck down the president’s executive order — which required a baby born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to receive automatic citizenship.

Chief Justice John Roberts, along with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett and liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, ruled the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born in the U.S.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote in his 26-page opinion. “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 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 time frame.

“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.