US Supreme Court will hear lawsuit challenging citizenship by birth.
The US Supreme Court has will hear a pivotal case that challenges a longstanding principle: birthright citizenship for people born in the United States.
On his first day in office this January, the administration signed an order aiming to terminate the policy, but the action was halted by lower courts after constitutional questions were filed.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will overturn those rights completely.
Next, the justices will set a time to hear oral arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which comprise immigrant parents and their infants.
The Legal Foundation
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that all individuals born in the nation is a citizen, with exceptions for children born to diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The challenged directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the Americas – that provide automatic citizenship to all those born within their borders.
