Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship: 6-3 Ruling & What It Means

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major decision in Trump v. Barbara. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices upheld broad birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and struck down President Trump’s Executive Order 14160.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. The order, signed on Trump’s first day of his second term, never took effect due to lower court blocks. This ruling reaffirms long-standing precedent like United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) while reigniting debates on immigration, citizenship, and executive power.

Quick Breakdown of the Ruling

• Vote: 6-3 (Roberts joined by liberals and Justice Barrett; dissents from Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito).
• Key Holding: Children born on U.S. soil to parents unlawfully present or on temporary visas are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and qualify as citizens at birth.
• Notable Points: Justice Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment but left room for Congress to act legislatively. Dissents argued the majority misreads history and creates incentives for illegal immigration.
• Trump’s Response: Acknowledged the loss but called on Congress to pass legislation ending the practice.

Source: StockCake

Do non-citizen workers have rights to compensation and a non-hostile work environment?

So this article published in an Indiana paper & written by a local blogger Gregory Tejada  raised some good questions. I'm no lawyer let alone an immigration expert but it something worth exploring and hoping there is an update to this:

Griffith police Commander Keith Martin said Wednesday that the 45-year-old Griffith man faces a felony charge of intimidation and a misdemeanor charge of battery for an incident that occurred Monday at the Griffith Gyros & More, 105 N. Broad St.

Martin said police received a call at about 7 p.m. claiming a disturbance at the restaurant. When officers arrived, they found employee Jose Martinez, who lives in Calumet City, Ill., with marks on his face and arm.

"It was obvious he had been hit," Martin said.

Martin and Jose Bustos, manager of the East Chicago-based Immigration Support and Assistance Center, both said that the incident occurred when Martinez was working Monday night and called his boss to complain about how busy it was.

Martinez told the Post-Tribune that he told the manager Monday he would quit his job immediately if help did not arrive to deal with an onslaught of customers.

Police said the manager then came to the restaurant and began yelling at Martinez for making a threat to quit, then began hitting him with a clenched fist.

Martinez said the man made threats to him during the fight concerning his immigration status, indicating he had no right to walk off a job. Martin said witnesses confirmed threats were made, but could not say what those threats were. Martinez admitted he is not a U.S. citizen, Martin said.

Martinez said the manager threatened to shoot him. "I thought I could get killed," he said.

Where do I begin? Well another thing from this article at least is his now former employer wants to withhold wages.

OK so it appears he's in a hostile work environment a boss who will threaten him and assault him. Not only that will make reference to his immigration/citizenship status just to threaten him.

It makes me wonder if this boss wasn't above the boards with his business and employees. Perhaps he knew what he was doing when he first hired people. Who knows?

Count me in as one of those people who want better controls over who enters this country and their paths to citizenship. What I see here, there is so much wrong with this picture my hope is Martinez finds a lawyer who'll take this fight to his former boss. Whether an immigrant or not no one deserves this treatment!

CapitolFax: Today’s quotable

An Illinois citizen wrote to our governor and got a response. Click through to see the response. He said he took a break from CapFax unless he needed an "emetic". Just had to look that up, heh that's probably politics everywhere in the country these days.

What makes a natural born citizen?

Since first term US Senator from Texas Ted Cruz has thrown his had into the 2016 presidential race, I found this WaPo article interesting. I wanted to know if Sen. Cruz who had been born in Canada was a natural-born citizen.

I knew he was born in Canada but were his parents US Citizens. There seems to be a serious debate about this.

There was a debate on a web-forum far far away over Cruz' US Senate colleague Marco Rubio. I believe the issue there was the immigrant status of his parents although Rubio was actually born in Miami, Florida to naturalized American citzens. Which adds another wrinkle to this debate over whether or not a person born in US territory is a natural born citizen.

Even mentioned in the aforementioned article the President. Although in the President's case it was less over being a natural born citizen as it was truth over some crucial birth documents.

In my personal most humble opinion if you're an American citizen born to an American citizen you're a citizen. I don't totally understand the debate between citizen vs. natural born citizen. My understanding has always been if you were born to an American citizen parent then you are a citizen and that makes you a natural born citizen.

What do you think?