The nation's highest court agrees to consider lawsuit challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The nation's highest court has will hear a significant case that questions a longstanding guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for people born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to terminate the policy, but the action was subsequently blocked by federal courts after legal challenges were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's final judgment 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 nullify them completely.
Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which comprise immigrant parents and their newborns.
The 14th Amendment
For over a century and a half, the Constitutional amendment has enshrined the principle that all individuals born in the United States is a American citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of foreign military forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that award automatic citizenship to any person born on their soil.
