America's top judicial body has decided to consider legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.
The top court has agreed to take on a landmark case that questions a longstanding principle: guaranteed citizenship for those born on American soil.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration issued an executive order aiming to terminate the policy, but the move was subsequently blocked by federal courts after legal challenges were initiated.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the offspring of foreign nationals who are in the US without authorization or on temporary visas, or it will overturn those rights completely.
Next, the court will schedule a date to hear the case between the administration and claimants, which include immigrant parents and their infants.
The Legal Foundation
For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has codified the doctrine that anyone born in the United States is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of occupying armies.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested presidential order sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States belongs to a group of about 30 countries – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that provide immediate citizenship to all those born on their soil.
