The deadline passed July 28 for the Trump administration to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its rejection of the president’s birthright citizenship restrictions, with no new filing on the docket.
President Donald Trump vowed to seek a rehearing shortly after the opinion handed him a loss on a signature issue June 30, but by July 28 the 25-day window had elapsed with no new activity.
A petition would face long odds: The court has not agreed to rehear an argued case in more than 50 years.
The high court’s 6-3 decision in June struck down Trump’s executive order that would have denied automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. whose parents are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
A week after the decision came down, Trump said in a social media post he would “be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY.”
GOP PIVOTING TO LEGISLATION
Rather than trying to win what would probably be a losing battle, admnistrative allies and GOP lawmakers are focusing on legislation. This strategy stems from Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion on the June 30 decision, which noted that while the Constitution may allow Congress to restrict birthright citizenship, doing so through executive action violates current federal law.
Republicans immediately seized on Kavanaugh’s roadmap, introducing several bills to rewrite federal citizenship criteria.
The Birthright Citizenship Clarification Act of 2026 was introduced by Rep. John McGuire, R-VA. This bill explicitly aims to deny automatic citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders.
A bill introduced by Sen. Jim Banks, R-IN, called The Citizenship Act of 2026, attempts to bypass constitutional hurdles by codifying Trump’s executive declaration of a “foreign invasion”. It argues that under an active invasion, the political branches hold the authority to deny citizenship to the children of those entering unlawfully.
To force these measures through a divided Congress, President Trump is heavily pressuring Senate Republicans. He has publicly demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune cancel congressional recesses and scrap the 60-vote legislative filibuster. This would allow the GOP to pass citizenship restrictions with a simple majority.
Despite the legislative push, legal scholars note that any new federal law faces a steep uphill battle. Because five sitting Supreme Court justices explicitly ruled that birthright citizenship is fully protected by the 14th Amendment, a new act of Congress would likely be struck down as unconstitutional. To overcome this, higher-profile figures like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Rand Paul argue that a full Constitutional Amendment is the only permanent solution.
