US Supreme Court has decided to consider legal challenge questioning birthright citizenship.
The US Supreme Court has decided to review a pivotal case that puts to the test a longstanding guarantee: automatic citizenship for individuals born on American soil.
On day one in office this winter, President Donald Trump enacted a directive aiming to halt the policy, but the move was halted by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's final ruling will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will overturn those rights completely.
Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear the case between the administration and claimants, which comprise foreign-born parents and their newborns.
The Legal Foundation
For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the rule that every person born in the United States is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and members 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 withhold citizenship to the offspring 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 Western Hemisphere – that grant automatic citizenship to any person born in their territory.
