GOP speaker floats amending Constitution after Supreme Court hands Trump devastating loss

Speaker Mike Johnson was in the middle of a news conference when the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision on President Donald Trump's executive order eliminating the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.

Johnson grumbled audibly and said he was “very disappointed” with the ruling, though he conceded it was a "textualist, originalist view" by the Court since it's plainly enshrined in the 14th Amendment.

However, he said that it's time to amend the U.S. Constitution to end birthright citizenship because it has been "grossly abused in recent years."

"We have, you know — it's become a tourism — birthing tourism, they call, you know, a trend where people will just come and you just come onto the soil and have your child and then they're able to avail themselves of the welfare state and everything else. It's been abused," said Johnson.

A study by the Immigration Policy Institute using data from the U.S. Census showed that approximately 0.7 percent of births in the U.S. "could be attributed to birth tourism." They aren't certain whether or not they are, but that is the maximum amount it could be

"And so I'm sure that we'll continue to look at that," Johnson continued. "I mean they I'm sure the conclusion from this opinion is going to be that you got to amend the Constitution to fix that. As we all know, it's a big challenge to amend the Constitution. It's only happened 27 times in our whole nation's history. And the reason is because you got to have two-thirds of the both chambers of Congress and three-fourths of the states to ratify. It's usually, you know, at least a many-year-long process and very complicated. Um we'll see."

He closed by saying that "we'll have to deal with it as a Congress."

Johnson has failed to pass much legislation since taking over as Speaker of the House. In 2025, the House set a record for the fewest votes and fewest bills passed in recent years, the New York Times reported. Republicans hold the majority in the House, Senate and White House.