The nation's highest court has decided to hear case disputing citizenship by birth.
The nation's highest court has will hear a pivotal case that challenges a longstanding principle: automatic citizenship for individuals born on American soil.
On the inaugural day in office this January, the President signed an order aiming to end this practice, but the order was struck down by federal courts after lawsuits were initiated.
The Supreme Court's final ruling will ultimately support citizenship rights for the infants of foreign nationals who are in the US undocumented or on short-term permits, or it will end them altogether.
Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the administration and the suing parties, which comprise foreign-born parents and their infants.
The Legal Foundation
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the doctrine that anyone born in the nation is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to 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 contested directive sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that award immediate citizenship to anyone born in their territory.
