The nation's highest court will consider legal challenge challenging citizenship by birth.
The top court has decided to review a significant case that questions a historic constitutional right: guaranteed citizenship for those born within US borders.
On his first day in office this winter, the administration enacted a directive aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the move was subsequently blocked by lower courts after legal challenges were initiated.
The Supreme Court's ultimate judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify those rights completely.
Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which involve immigrant parents and their newborns.
The Legal Foundation
For over a century and a half, the 14th Amendment has established the doctrine that all individuals born in the nation is a citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and members of invading forces.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States is one of about three dozen nations – primarily in the Americas – that provide automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil.
