Leavitt doubles down on Trump’s birthright citizenship order

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the Trump administration’s position Tuesday that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional and that they are prepared to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Leavitt, who is the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history at 27 years old, echoed Vice President JD Vance, who drew widespread coverage over the weekend for also defending President Donald Trump’s executive order on the subject.

“This administration believes that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, and that is why President Trump signed that executive order,” Leavitt said during her first press briefing before the White House Press Corps. 

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“Illegal immigrants who come to this country and have a child are not subject to the laws of this jurisdiction. That’s the opinion of this administration,” she added.

The White House is prepared to appeal the temporary restraining order against Trump’s executive order by a federal judge in Seattle, and is willing to fight “all the way to the Supreme Court,” she added.

.@PressSec: “This administration believes that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional.” pic.twitter.com/5zS9ViwY3x

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 28, 2025

During his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship,” which said, “the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

“The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,'” the order continued.

The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to ensure citizenship for former slaves after the Civil War, according to the Library of Congress.

Leavitt’s comments reflected the interpretation of the 14th Amendment that maintains the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” precludes the children of those who are born to parents who are not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S.

On Jan. 23, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, an 84-year-old Reagan appointee, granted a 14-day restraining order that blocked the executive action he called “blatantly unconstitutional.” The order was set to go into effect on Feb. 19.

On Monday, Coughenor called for the lawsuit against the order filed by four states — Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon — to be consolidated with another one that includes three pregnant women who are not U.S. citizens.

During an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan over the weekend, Vance pushed back against the district judge’s opinion and the idea that anyone born on U.S. soil is de facto an American citizen.

“I obviously disagree with that judge,” Vice President JD Vance says of a federal judge, who this week blocked on constitutional grounds, President Trump’s order attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship.

“Just because we were founded by immigrants, doesn’t mean that 240… pic.twitter.com/rrO9QfsDSa

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 26, 2025

“If you come here on vacation and you have a baby in an American hospital, that baby doesn’t become an American citizen,” he said. “If you’re an illegal alien and you come here temporarily, hopefully, your child does not become an American citizen by virtue of just having been born on American soil.”

“It’s a very basic principle in American immigration law, that if you want to become an American citizen, and you’ve done it the right way, and the American people in their collective wisdom have welcomed you into our national community, then you become a citizen,” Vance continued.

When Brennan suggested the U.S. is “a nation founded by immigrants,” Vance said the fact the country was founded by settlers and immigrants centuries ago does not justify having “the dumbest immigration policy in the world.”