Another 250 years? Two-thirds of US citizens now fear democracy will fail

The supreme court split on birthright citizenship, a founding ideal, does not augur well for the republic, Hugh Tomlinson writes

- Hugh Tomlinson

In the week that the US celebrated the 250th anniversary of independence from British rule, the supreme court issued its own opinion on what it is to be an American in 2026.

At this fraught moment in American history, civil rights groups and legal scholars had hoped for an emphatic message that the foundations of the republic are still sound.

Instead, the landmark ruling on birthright citizenship laid bare the partisan rancour and anti-immigrant fury that has consumed the US’s political right since Donald Trump first swept to power almost a decade ago. The court did vote to uphold the 14th amendment of the constitution — which confers citizenship on all children born in the United States — but only just.

Rather than a resounding 9-0 rebuttal of Trump, the justices rejected the president's bid to strip the right to citizenship from the children of undocumented migrants by 6-3, and were split by 5-4 on whether to cast off the 14th amendment.

One of the US's fundamental ideals — that anyone born in the country is equally deserving of citizenship — is now left hanging by a thread. Even on the bench of the supreme court, the European-style blood and soil nationalism that the US was founded to reject is now gaining ground.

The reaction from the White House to the court’s ruling was vicious. Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump’s mass deportation programme, decried the ruling as “destructive and outrageous”, suggesting the administration would take a “hard look” at banning pregnant migrants from entering America.

Some Maga loyalists went even fur-ther. Sean Davis, head of rightwing news site the Federalist, called for all foreign visitors to be sterilised before entering the country.