US Supreme Court agrees to hear legal challenge challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The nation's highest court has will hear a landmark case that puts to the test a century-old guarantee: automatic citizenship for people born on American soil.
On day one in office this January, President Donald Trump signed an order aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the order was halted by lower courts after constitutional questions were filed.
The Supreme Court's final decision will ultimately support citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will overturn the provision entirely.
Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that every person born in the nation is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel of foreign military forces.
"All persons 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 in violation of immigration law or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States is among about 30 countries – largely in the Western Hemisphere – that award immediate citizenship to anyone born in their territory.
