America's top judicial body agrees to review legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.
The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a landmark case that puts to the test a century-old constitutional right: automatic citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On his first day in office this winter, the President enacted a directive aiming to halt birthright citizenship, but the order was halted by the judiciary after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's ultimate decision will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of foreign nationals who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will nullify them altogether.
Next, the court will calendar a session to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which include foreign-born parents and their young children.
The Legal Foundation
For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has enshrined the rule that every person born in the nation is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to diplomats and members of occupying armies.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The challenged presidential order sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States is one of about a minority of states – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that award immediate citizenship to all those born within their borders.
