Johnson warns of 'challenges' from birthright citizenship ruling, need for an amendment

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday expressed his disappointment with the Supreme Court's decision to assert birthright citizenship as a constitutional right and indicated that a constitutional amendment would be necessary to end the practice.

The Supreme Court struck down an executive order from President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to interpret the 14th Amendment as not granting citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. The justices determined that children born in the United States to parents in the country illegally or temporarily are citizens under the 14th Amendment.

“I will say, I’m very disappointed in that outcome. I think it subjects the country to serious challenges going forward, and we’ll have to deal with it as Congress," Johnson told reporters.

He further denounced so-called "birthing tourism," a practice in which pregnant women travel to the United States to give birth in order to secure U.S. citizenship for their children and secure a potential avenue for their own immigration to the country.

"It’s one of those things that was intended to serve a noble and important purpose and has been thwarted and overused and abused, and so I’m sure that we’ll continue to look at that," he added. "I’m sure that the conclusion from this decision is you have to amend the constitution to fix that.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a constitutional amendment earlier this year to limit birthright citizenship to children with at least one parent who is either a citizen or at least lawfully in the U.S., but that amendment is unlikely to be ratified.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.