US Supreme Court agrees to consider legal challenge questioning birthright citizenship.
The top court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that puts to the test a historic guarantee: birthright citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this January, the President signed an order aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the order was halted by the judiciary after constitutional questions were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately uphold citizenship rights for the offspring of migrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will overturn those rights altogether.
Next, the court will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the federal government and the suing parties, which comprise foreign-born parents and their newborns.
The 14th Amendment
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the principle that all individuals born in the country is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of foreign military forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – largely in the Western Hemisphere – that provide automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil.
