The nation's highest court agrees to consider lawsuit disputing automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The top court has decided to review a landmark case that questions a longstanding principle: birthright citizenship for individuals born in the United States.
On his first day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the order was struck down by the judiciary after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately support citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify those rights entirely.
Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear arguments between the administration and plaintiffs, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their young children.
The Legal Foundation
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that every person born in the country is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested directive sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that award immediate citizenship to all those born in their territory.
