The nation's highest court has decided to consider lawsuit challenging citizenship by birth.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to take on a significant case that challenges a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for people born within US borders.
On day one in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to halt birthright citizenship, but the order was subsequently blocked by lower courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US without authorization or on short-term permits, or it will nullify them entirely.
Next, the court will set a time to hear arguments between the government and the suing parties, which include foreign-born parents and their infants.
The Legal Foundation
For more than 150 years, the Constitutional amendment has enshrined the doctrine that anyone born in the nation is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of occupying armies.
"Every individual 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 withhold 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 is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the North and South America – that award instant citizenship to all those born in their territory.
