President Trump wants the Supreme Court to think again.
Weeks after the justices struck down his effort to end automatic birthright citizenship, Trump announced Wednesday he’s asking for a rehearing—a legal long shot that courts almost never grant.
“I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”
The move follows last month’s 5-4 ruling, which blocked Trump’s executive order and held that children born on U.S. soil to parents here illegally or temporarily are still American citizens under the 14th Amendment.
Rehearings are rare for a reason. Supreme Court rules require petitions within 25 days of a ruling, and they’re granted only when the justices may have missed something significant. At least one justice from the original majority has to agree the case is worth a second look. Without that, the petition goes nowhere.
The White House isn’t backing down.
“This fight is just getting started,” deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said July 1.
“American citizenship is worth so much more than a cheap plane ticket or a last-minute border crossing,” she said. “The American people can rest assured that President Trump isn’t giving up on this any time soon.”
Jackson said the administration believes the court “fundamentally misinterpreted” the 14th Amendment, arguing it was never meant to hand automatic citizenship to children of foreign nationals in the country illegally or temporarily.
Getting the justices to reconsider, though, is one of the steepest climbs of Trump’s second term. Rehearings happen only in extraordinary cases—and this one will need to clear a bar almost nothing does.
