US Supreme Court agrees to consider lawsuit challenging birthright citizenship.
The nation's highest court has decided to review a pivotal case that challenges a historic constitutional right: automatic citizenship for those born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this January, the administration signed an order aiming to halt the policy, but the action was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after constitutional questions were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling will either uphold citizenship rights for the offspring of migrants who are in the US without authorization or on non-immigrant visas, or it will overturn those rights altogether.
Next, the court will set a time to hear arguments between the federal government and claimants, which include foreign-born parents and their young children.
The 14th Amendment
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the doctrine that every person born in the country is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of occupying armies.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested executive order sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that provide immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.
