The nation's highest court agrees to review legal challenge challenging birthright citizenship.
The top court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that questions a historic constitutional right: automatic citizenship for those born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to end the policy, but the action was halted by the judiciary after lawsuits were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately support citizenship rights for the offspring of migrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end those rights entirely.
Next, the court will calendar a session to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their young children.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that all individuals born in the country is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel 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 executive order sought to refuse citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States is among about a minority of states – primarily in the North and South America – that award instant citizenship to any person born on their soil.
