Trump becomes first sitting president to attend Supreme Court oral arguments, in birthright citizenship case

President Trump made an unprecedented visit to the Supreme Court on April 1, 2026, becoming the first sitting president in modern history to personally attend oral arguments at the high court. He sat silently in the front row of the public gallery, accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as justices heard challenges to his executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship. The executive order, issued on his first day in office in January 2025, seeks to overturn the 14th Amendment's guarantee that anyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. During the two-hour arguments, a majority of justices appeared skeptical of the administration's position, which attempts to revive a legal theory rejected over a century ago in Wong Kim Ark. The ACLU, along with the National Immigration Law Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, argued that Trump's order flouts the Constitution, longstanding precedent...

"We're going to end birthright citizenship. It's ridiculous. No other country has it." — Trump's statement defending his executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship, despite the 14th Amendment's clear language and over 30 countries having similar policies