The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on birthright citizenship Monday, June 30 — the final day of the court’s current term. The decision has been among the most closely watched of the term, touching a question that sits at the center of the national immigration debate: whether children born on U.S. soil are automatically citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, has long been read to guarantee citizenship to nearly all people born in the United States. Challenges to that interpretation have circulated for decades, but none has reached this stage before. A ruling that narrows or overturns that reading would carry sweeping consequences for immigration policy nationwide.
Background
The case arrived at the high court after lower federal courts blocked an executive order that sought to limit birthright citizenship. Challengers argued the order violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The administration contended the amendment was never meant to cover children of people in the country unlawfully or on temporary visas.
The justices heard arguments earlier this term. What made the case unusual wasn’t just the constitutional stakes — it was a procedural question the court took up alongside it: whether federal judges can issue nationwide injunctions blocking a presidential order, or whether such blocks should apply only to the specific plaintiffs in a given case. The court’s answer on that narrower point could reshape how future executive orders get challenged in court, whatever it decides on citizenship itself.
A ruling is expected before the end of the day Monday. The court hasn’t signaled which way it will go.
Murder rate
Separately, the U.S. murder rate is approaching what would be a record low, according to recent crime data. The figures reflect a sharp drop from the spike seen during the early years of the pandemic, when homicides climbed across most major American cities. Researchers and law enforcement officials have debated what drove that spike and what’s now pulling the numbers back down — and no single explanation has settled the argument.
Whether the downward trend holds through the rest of 2026 isn’t yet clear.
