US Supreme Court has decided to review case questioning birthright citizenship.
The top court has decided to review a pivotal case that puts to the test a historic guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On his first day in office this January, the administration issued an executive order aiming to terminate this practice, but the action was halted by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual decision will either uphold citizenship rights for the children of foreign nationals who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will overturn them completely.
Next, the court will schedule a date to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which include parents who are immigrants and their newborns.
The Legal Foundation
For over a century and a half, the Constitutional amendment has established the principle that all individuals born in the United States is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of invading forces.
"Every individual 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 whether in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that award automatic citizenship to all those born on their soil.
