A New Birthright Citizenship Executive Order and a Companion 'Ending Birth Tourism' Order, Signed August 6, 2026, Five Weeks After the Supreme Court Struck Down Executive Order 14160

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Trump v. Barbara that Executive Order 14160, the administration's first attempt to end birthright citizenship, was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment, and it reaffirmed United States v. Wong Kim Ark. That order and that ruling are documented in POWER-031.

Five weeks later, on August 6, 2026, President Trump signed a new executive order titled "Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," together with a companion order titled "Ending Birth Tourism." The new order directs federal agencies to withhold documents recognizing U.S. citizenship from children born in the United States when neither parent is a citizen and one of four conditions applies: a parent is a designated member of a foreign terrorist organization or an "alien enemy"; a parent is a foreign-government or embassy employee or holds international-organization immunity; the parents engaged in a commercial transaction, including surrogacy or so-called birth tourism, to obtain the birth; or the birth occurred in a U.S. territory or in territorial waters where no federal statute confers citizenship. The order's operative directive states that "no executive department or agency shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship to" persons "when neither parent of that person is a citizen" and one of the listed conditions applies.

The new order does not target the two categories the Supreme Court protected in Trump v. Barbara, children of parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present. Instead, the order cites Trump v. Barbara, 146 S. Ct. 2438 (2026), and frames its categories as fitting within exceptions the Court recognized, quoting the ruling's reference to children "for whom no extraterritorial fiction applie[s]." Administration officials described the order in the same terms. According to Fox News, White House counsel Will Scharf said the administration was relying on "legally validated means" that do not conflict with the Court's ruling, and the White House said the orders rest on "existing executive and immigration authorities."

As of mid-August 2026, no lawsuit had been filed against the new orders and no court had ruled on them. The American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic state attorneys general signaled that they would challenge the orders. No court had found the administration in contempt of, or in violation of, the injunction that blocked Executive Order 14160, and no child had been denied citizenship documents in defiance of a court order.

The new order does not attempt to deny citizenship to the children the Supreme Court protected in Trump v. Barbara, and several of its categories map onto exceptions that citizenship law has long recognized. Children of foreign diplomats and children of hostile or occupying forces are traditional exceptions to the birthright rule, acknowledged in Wong Kim Ark itself and in Barbara. Citizenship in some U.S. territories is governed by statute rather than directly by the Citizenship Clause. To the extent the order is confined to those recognized exceptions, it is an attempt to operate within the ruling rather than against it, and the administration cites the Court's own language in support.

Issuing an executive order is a lawful exercise of executive authority unless and until a court holds otherwise. No court has enjoined the August 6 order, found it unlawful, or found the administration in contempt. The surrogacy, commercial-transaction, and "alien enemy" categories are novel, and reasonable lawyers dispute whether they fit the recognized exceptions, but that dispute is a legal question the courts have not yet resolved.

The entry documents primary executive documents, the two orders signed August 6, 2026, retrieved from the White House, together with the officials' contemporaneous statements as reported.

The orders were signed five weeks after the Supreme Court held Executive Order 14160 unconstitutional in Trump v. Barbara. The new order does not target the two categories of children the Court protected in that ruling; it directs agencies to withhold citizenship documents from four different categories, which the administration states fall within exceptions the Court recognized. As of mid-August 2026 no court had ruled on the new order, no injunction had issued against it, and no finding of contempt or non-compliance existed. This entry states what the orders say and what has followed, and it will be amended as courts rule.