America's top judicial body will review legal challenge challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that challenges a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for those born in the United States.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, President Donald Trump signed an order aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the order was struck down by the judiciary after legal challenges were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them completely.
Next, the judges will calendar a session to hear arguments between the government and the suing parties, which include foreign-born parents and their young children.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that every person born in the United States is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to diplomats and members of foreign military forces.
"Every individual born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested presidential order sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law 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 provide immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.
