The 25-day window for the Trump administration to ask the Supreme Court to rehear its birthright citizenship ruling closed on Monday, July 27, 2026, with no petition appearing on the Court’s docket. AP News reported the following day that the deadline had lapsed without action. Practically, this means the Supreme Court’s June ruling stands and the executive order remains unenforceable.
The inaction follows a public pledge from President Trump, who wrote on Truth Social on July 8 that he would seek rehearing “immediately.” We covered that pledge in our earlier piece on the case. No such petition was ever filed.
Background
On January 20, 2025, the White House issued Executive Order 14160, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” The order sought to deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil unless at least one parent was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Lower courts blocked it almost immediately, and after the injunctions held up on appeal, the administration took the fight to the Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara.
The Court heard oral argument on April 1, 2026, and ruled 6-3 against the executive order on June 30, 2026. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson. Justice Kavanaugh supplied the sixth vote, concurring in the judgment but not in the majority’s reasoning. Justice Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Gorsuch; Justice Alito filed a separate dissent. The decision preserves the existing understanding of birthright citizenship for children born in the United States, consistent with the Court’s 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Impact
With the rehearing deadline now passed, the June ruling is final as far as the Supreme Court is concerned. The executive order remains blocked, and birthright citizenship continues under the pre-existing framework. Rehearing petitions rarely succeed in any event: the Court hasn’t granted one in an argued case since 1965, so even a timely filing would have faced long odds.
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