The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that challenges a century-old guarantee: automatic citizenship for individuals born in the United States.
On his first day in office this winter, the administration enacted a directive aiming to terminate this practice, but the action was halted by lower courts after constitutional questions were initiated.
The Supreme Court's ultimate judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas, or it will overturn them completely.
Next, the justices will calendar a session to hear the case between the federal government and plaintiffs, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that every person born in the United States is a American citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of occupying armies.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed executive order sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States is among about three dozen nations – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that award automatic citizenship to all those born within their borders.
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