The nation's highest court agrees to hear case questioning citizenship by birth.
The top court has agreed to take on a landmark case that questions a historic guarantee: automatic citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On his first day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to terminate the policy, but the move was subsequently blocked by lower courts after constitutional questions were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the offspring of migrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will overturn those rights completely.
Next, the court will schedule a date to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.
The Legal Foundation
For over a century and a half, the Constitutional amendment has codified the principle that every person born in the country is a American citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel 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 disputed executive order sought to deny citizenship to the children 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 – largely in the North and South America – that provide immediate citizenship to any person born on their soil.
