By a more than a two-to-one margin, Americans favor the long-standing practice of granting “birthright citizenship” to nearly all children born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ status, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll. They also oppose President Trump’s efforts to effectively end birthright citizenship — which has been the law of the land for more than 160 years — and reject the reasoning behind a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could enable many states to do just that.

The survey of 1,597 U.S. adults was conducted from June 26 to June 30, a period that coincided with the Court’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA to limit federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions and blocking executive orders they deem illegal — in this case, the president’s order rescinding birthright citizenship — from going into effect across the United States.

(Trump signed the order in question on his first day back in office in January; it attempts to deny birthright citizenship to any child whose father was “not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident” at the time of birth and whose mother was either “unlawfully present in the United States” or present lawfully but temporarily.)

The public sees things differently, however. According to the new Yahoo/YouGov poll, a full 58% of Americans — including 61% of independents and even 30% of Republicans — favor birthright citizenship (i.e., the right enshrined in the “14th Amendment [that] nearly all children born on U.S. soil are citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration or citizenship status”). Just 26% oppose it.

Likewise, after reading that Trump’s executive order would “end birthright citizenship by directing federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children unless at least one of their parents is a citizen or a lawful permanent resident,” only one-third of Americans (34%) say they agree with it. Far more (53%) say they disagree with the order.

Most Americans (56%) also believe that federal judges should “have the power to determine when laws, policies or regulations violate the U.S. Constitution”; a mere 21% would rather they didn’t.

As a result, just 29% of Americans agree with the Supreme Court that “a federal judge [who] determines that a law violates the U.S. Constitution” should not “also have the power to issue nationwide injunctions to block the challenged law” — while 44% disagree and say federal judges should have that power.

What’s next for birthright citizenship?

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution — which was ratified three years after the end of the Civil War — states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

That’s birthright citizenship. At the time, the idea was to protect former slaves as equal citizens under the law. But the courts have since interpreted the 14th Amendment to mean that all U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status (unless they’re the children of foreign diplomats, who aren’t “subject” to U.S. law).

Trump and his allies disagree. They claim birthright citizenship incentivizes immigrants to enter the country illegally — and they argue that such immigrants shouldn’t be seen as “subject to [U.S.] jurisdiction.”

Hence Trump’s executive order — and the challenges to its constitutionality. In Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court avoided the issue of birthright citizenship altogether, instead limiting itself to the debate around nationwide injunctions, which federal judges have routinely used against both Democratic and Republican presidents.

But the practical effect of the court’s ruling is that Trump’s order may soon go into effect in the 28 states that didn’t sue him — leaving babies who are born there to immigrants without full legal status stateless and vulnerable to deportation.

Mixed views on other SCOTUS decisions

The Supreme Court closed its term late last month by releasing a flurry of decisions, including several highly anticipated rulings centered around other controversial issues.

In two of those cases, the justices’ final decision aligned strongly with public opinion. The first was Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which the court found that parents have the right to opt their children out of public school lessons that include LGBTQ themes if those lessons conflict with their religious beliefs.

According to the new Yahoo/YouGov poll, 65% of Americans agree that parents should have that right, compared with only 19% who say they should not. Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to agree with the court’s ruling (88% vs. 44%).

There is still more to come in this case. The justices will consider the core question — whether mandatory lessons with LGBTQ themes violate parents’ religious freedom — at a later date. But, for now, their judgment on the issue fits public opinion.

The second case is Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, in which the court ruled that states can require adults to prove they are over 18 in order to access online pornography. A total of 24 states have laws on the books that mandate age verification for explicit content. Free speech groups had argued that these laws impose enough of a burden on speech that they violate the First Amendment. The justices were unconvinced, finding that it’s reasonable to create barriers to prevent young people from accessing explicit content.

Age verification laws have broad support among the public. A full 65% of Americans say adults should have to provide proof of their age in order to access pornography. Just 17% say they should not. There are significant, though less pronounced, partisan differences in responses on this issue as well. Democrats are less likely than Republicans to back age verification requirements (58% vs. 82%), though majorities of both groups support the laws.

The biggest divergence between the court’s decisions and public opinion came in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The case considered whether states can block Planned Parenthood from receiving any funding from Medicaid, the government program that provides insurance for more than 70 million low-income Americans. It is already illegal for federal dollars to be used for abortions. The justices ruled that states can extend that policy to all health services Planned Parenthood provides, including contraception, cancer screenings, pregnancy care and other reproductive health support.

Just 29% of Americans agree that states should be able to defund Planned Parenthood entirely, while 55% disagree. The political differences are particularly stark on this issue.

As their last act of the term, the justices announced that they would need more time to consider the final undecided case on their docket. The case concerns Louisiana’s congressional map, which has been locked in an ongoing legal battle over whether the state should be mandated to ensure that it includes two districts with majority-Black populations.

The closely watched case could have huge implications for voting rights and who holds power in Washington once it is ultimately decided. The justices said they will hear more arguments on the issue in their next term, which begins in October.

A majority of Americans (54%) say that race should not be a consideration when drawing congressional maps. Just 19% say the opposite. That overall view runs counter to current law and legal precedent, which bars states from having districts that unfairly dilute the voting power of racial minorities.

Confidence in the Supreme Court remains low

Despite all the recent action — and controversy — Americans seem to have fairly fixed views of the Supreme Court at this point. According to the latest Yahoo/YouGov poll, slightly fewer now approve (39%) than disapprove (46%) of the court — numbers that are right in line with the average of seven prior Yahoo/YouGov surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 (39% approve, 46% disapprove).

Similarly, 43% of Americans currently say they have at least some confidence in the court, nearly matching the 44% who said the same in 2022 and 2023.

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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,597 U.S. adults interviewed online from June 26 to 30, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3.2%.

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