US Supreme Court has decided to consider case challenging birthright citizenship.
The nation's highest court has will hear a significant case that challenges a longstanding guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born in the United States.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, the President enacted a directive aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the order was struck down by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will overturn those rights altogether.
Next, the court will set a time to hear the case between the administration and the suing parties, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the doctrine that all individuals born in the country is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed presidential order sought to refuse citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States is among about a minority of states – primarily in the Americas – that provide automatic citizenship to anyone born in their territory.
