America's top judicial body agrees to hear legal challenge challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The top court has agreed to take on a landmark case that questions a longstanding constitutional right: automatic citizenship for those born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, President Donald Trump signed an order aiming to end the policy, but the order was struck down by lower courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's final decision will ultimately support citizenship rights for the children of immigrants who are in the US without authorization or on non-immigrant visas, or it will overturn them completely.
Next, the justices will calendar a session to hear oral arguments between the administration and the suing parties, which comprise foreign-born parents and their newborns.
The 14th Amendment
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the doctrine that anyone born in the United States is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of invading forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The challenged presidential order sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.
