By Jan Wolfe and Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – A majority of Americans believe all babies born in the country should automatically be granted citizenship, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on President Donald Trump’s effort to end the practice.The high court is poised to rule in the coming weeks on a range of polarizing issues – from immigration policy and transgender rights to rules on how to count mail-in ballots – that could help define the Republican president’s legacy and set key rules for the November 3 midterm elections.
The poll, conducted nationwide April 15-20, found that 64% of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, while 32% support scrapping it as Trump ordered in January 2025.
Trump’s executive order was challenged in court and Supreme Court justices are expected to rule by the end of June in what will be a landmark civil rights case and a test for Trump’s hardline immigration agenda. The high court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, appeared unlikely to side with Trump during an April 1 oral argument.
Public perception of birthright citizenship is split along party lines, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Only 9% of Democrats think the policy should be scrapped, but Republicans are divided, with 62% supporting an end to birthright citizenship and 36% in favor of keeping it.
The Supreme Court often issues high-profile rulings in May and June as it nears the end of its annual term.
TRANSGENDER ATHLETES
In cases out of Idaho and West Virginia, the court is expected to allow states to pass laws restricting participation in women’s sports by transgender athletes.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found broad support for restrictions on transgender girls and women competing in women’s school and college sports, a topic that has grown into a political flashpoint.
About 67% of survey respondents supported banning transgender people from competing in female school sports. Ninety-two percent of Republicans said they supported such bans, compared with 44% of Democrats.
The court will also weigh in on whether states can count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received days later. Some 65% of respondents said they back counting mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive a few days late.
Eighty-five percent of Democrats said they supported such an approach to counting mail-in ballots, compared with 51% of Republicans.
LOUISIANA HOUSE DISTRICTS
Another case will determine the constitutionality of a Louisiana map of congressional districts that was drawn to raise the number of Black-majority districts in the state from one to two, in order to increase Black voters’ representation.
A group of white voters want the Supreme Court to block the map, arguing it was guided too much by racial considerations.
Public views on the matter are nuanced. Some 75% of poll respondents – including 65% of Black respondents – said race should not be considered when drawing congressional maps. But about five in 10 respondents – and six in 10 Black respondents – said they thought communities that share characteristics including race should be represented in the same congressional district.
The court has issued major rulings in recent years that have expanded gun rights, rejected race-conscious college admissions, and curbed the power of federal agencies. Its conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term.
American views on the Supreme Court have become more partisan over the past five years. Some 70% of Republicans viewed the court favorably in a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in March, compared with 27% of Democrats. In a December 2021 Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted several months before the court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, 66% of Republicans said they liked the court, compared with 55% of Democrats.
The most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll on the Supreme Court was conducted online and gathered responses from 4,557 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Jason Lange in Washington; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
