US Supreme Court will consider case questioning automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The US Supreme Court has decided to review a significant case that questions a historic principle: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born in the United States.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, the President signed an order aiming to halt the policy, but the move was halted by federal courts after lawsuits were initiated.
The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will nullify them altogether.
Next, the justices will set a time to hear oral arguments between the government and claimants, which comprise foreign-born parents and their infants.
The 14th Amendment
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that anyone born in the country is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and members of occupying armies.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested executive order sought to withhold citizenship to the children 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 three dozen nations – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born on their soil.
