Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship, Narrows Surveillance and Trans Sports

The Supreme Court ended its 2025-26 term by resolving four major disputes that directly affect citizenship, digital privacy, mail ballots, and school sports. The decisions limit presidential power to redefine constitutional citizenship, require warrants for certain location data, preserve state flexibility on late mail ballots, and allow states to bar transgender athletes from girls' and women's teams.

In Trump v. Barbara the Court ruled 6-3 that President Trump's executive order excluding children of parents without lawful permanent status from birthright citizenship violated federal statute. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion joined by Justices Barrett, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson. Justice Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment on statutory grounds under 8 U.S.C. § 1401 while declining to reach the constitutional question. Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito dissented, arguing the Citizenship Clause does not extend to children of temporary or undocumented visitors.

In Chatrie v. United States the Court held 6-3 that geofence warrants seeking Google location history constitute searches under the Fourth Amendment. Justice Kagan's opinion, joined by five others, rejected application of the third-party doctrine and remanded for further review of the warrant's particularity. The ruling follows Carpenter v. United States (2018) and applies to reverse-location requests that sweep in devices near a crime scene without individualized suspicion.

In Watson v. RNC the Court upheld state laws permitting counting of mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward. The decision leaves intact existing state deadlines and procedures for verifying and tabulating such ballots.

In the consolidated cases Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. the Court upheld Idaho and West Virginia statutes barring transgender girls from female school sports teams. Justice Kavanaugh's majority opinion relied on Title IX's explicit allowance for sex-segregated athletic teams and left states free to define eligibility by biological sex at birth. The rulings affect laws now in place in more than half the states.

The term also produced Trump v. Slaughter, in which the Court held that presidents may remove heads of independent agencies, overturning Humphrey's Executor. Reactions split along familiar lines: progressive outlets emphasized threats to institutional norms and minority protections, while conservative outlets stressed restoration of constitutional text and state authority. All four principal decisions were issued in the final week before the July 2026 recess and will shape litigation and legislation heading into the midterms.