GOP figures break with Trump on birthright ruling, argue constitutional amendment necessary

Administration GOP figures break with Trump on birthright ruling, argue constitutional amendment necessary Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 06/30/26 2:33 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 06/30/26 2:33 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Several prominent elected Republicans with law backgrounds on Tuesday broke with President Trump on the Supreme Court’s ruling over birthright citizenship, arguing that a constitutional amendment would have to be passed to change this method of obtaining citizenship.

The high court ruled 6-3 that the 14th Amendment automatically guarantees citizenship for nearly all children born on U.S. soil, even those born to parents in the country unlawfully.

Relenting to the court’s decision, Trump declared he would tackle birthright citizenship through Congress.

“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a Harvard Law School graduate, argued in a statement on social media that the court’s decision was not procedural but rather “a substantive decision that says the 14th Amendment requires citizenship for those born to, among others, birth tourists or those unlawfully present in the country.”

“Will need either a constitutional amendment or a future court to overrule this,” he added. “Anyway you slice it, the decision is a major defeat.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who once served as a clerk for Justice Samuel Alito, who dissented from the ruling, also concluded that Congress will have to respond.

“We’re going to need a constitutional amendment,” he wrote on the social platform X.

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, who served as an alderman and later as the state’s attorney general, wrote a lengthy X post condemning the Supreme Court’s ruling as “wrong, dangerous, and disastrous for American sovereignty and the American people,” as he called on Congress to intervene to “do what the Constitution commands in moments of national crisis.”

“In the wake of an erroneous Supreme Court ruling like this one, Congress has a duty to examine the Constitution’s text, the historical record, and the policy consequences,” Schmitt wrote. “Congress also has the power to respond. When the Court mistakenly interprets a statute, Congress can amend the statute through bicameralism and presentment. But when the Court entrenches its mistake as a constitutional command, the remedy must match the injury.”

He said Congress can follow the “purposefully difficult” process of proposing an amendment for the states to ratify, requiring approval from two-thirds of the members in both chambers of Congress and three-quarters of the states for ratification.

“Ordinary legislation cannot repair the damage,” he added. “A constitutional amendment is now required. Accordingly, I will be announcing a forthcoming constitutional amendment to restore the sacred bond between American citizens and their government.”

He warned that birthright citizenship was never a “suicide pact” and warned that if left “unaddressed, this Supreme Court decision will destroy the republic.”

Two of the court’s six conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sides with all three liberal justices. Justice Brett Kavanaugh disagreed with the opinion but voted to block Trump’s order under a 1940 law that Congress passed, which put that conventional understanding into federal statute.

Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented. Alito wrote that the high court made “one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court.”

Trump focused on birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term with an executive order requiring a baby born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to gain birthright citizenship.

Litigation from several Democratic-led states challenged the order, preventing it from taking effect.