Speaker Johnson: Birthright citizenship ruling subjects US to ‘serious challenges’

House Speaker Johnson: Birthright citizenship ruling subjects US to ‘serious challenges’ Comments: by Sarah Davis - 06/30/26 11:54 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Sarah Davis - 06/30/26 11:54 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) responded to the Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling that found the Trump administration’s efforts to place new restrictions on birthright citizenship are unconstitutional.

Johnson was asked by reporters during a press conference for his reaction shortly after the news of the decision broke.

“I will say, I’m very disappointed in that outcome,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I think it subjects the country to serious challenges going forward, and we’ll have to deal with it as Congress.”

He cited a “serious problem” with alleged abuses of birthright citizenship.

“Birthing tourism, they call it: a trend where people come and you just come on to the soil and have your child and then they’re able to avail themselves of the welfare state and everything else,” the GOP leader added.

“It’s been abused,” he continued. “It’s one of those things that was intended to serve a noble and important purpose and has been thwarted and overused and abused, and so I’m sure that we’ll continue to look at that. I’m sure that the conclusion from this decision is you have to amend the constitution to fix that.”

The high court found that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship for nearly all children who are born on U.S. soil. This includes children of parents who are in the country unlawfully.

The ruling overturns an executive order signed by President Trump in the early days of his second term, which would require a child born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status in order to be granted citizenship.

This order was met with opposition from many Democrat-led states, who argued that this restriction violated the 14th Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the court’s majority opinion, which was joined by all three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch sided with the Trump administration, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the court’s ruling but voted to block Trump’s order under federal law.