(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump brushed off his loss after the Supreme Court rejected his attempt to end birthright citizenship — rooted in the 14th Amendment — on Tuesday, saying the decision is “too bad for the Country” and insisting that he can “easily make it up in Congress through Legislation.”
The court ruled in a 6-3 decision to reject Trump’s executive order that he issued on the first day of his presidency, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land. We keep that promise today.”
Trump responded to the court’s decision with a post on his social media platform, writing, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,” he wrote on his social media platform.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship,” he added.
Birthright citizenship is rooted in both the Constitution and 1940 federal citizenship law. But even if the law were to be changed, this would likely be challenged in court on constitutional grounds with the possibility of the issue making its way back to the Supreme Court.
ABC News reached out to the White House for more information about how the president would use Congress as a workaround for the court’s decision and if he is prepared for the issue to potentially return to legal scrutiny, but the White House referred questions back to the president’s post.
On Monday, Trump said he would “accept” the results of the Supreme Court and acknowledged that “it’s up to them.”
In a subsequent post Tuesday, Trump again reiterated his desire to “correct” the birthright citizenship case in Congress while touting other cases that he won before the court.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking at a House Republican news conference before Trump posted, said he was “very disappointed” with the decision and that Congress will look at amending the Constitution to address the issue.
“I think it subjects the country to serious challenges going forward and we’ll have to deal with it as a Congress,” Johnson said, saying the policy has been “grossly abused.”
“I’m sure we will continue to look at that. I’m sure the conclusion from this opinion is going to be you’ve got to amend the Constitution to fix that,” he said.
Johnson acknowledged a constitutional amendment would be “very complicated” and a “many-years-long process,” but said he thought it was likely the only way forward.
Amending the Constitution would take a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress ratification by three-quarters of the states.
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