The nation's highest court has decided to hear lawsuit disputing citizenship by birth.
The top court has decided to review a landmark case that challenges a century-old principle: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On day one in office this January, the administration enacted a directive aiming to end the policy, but the move was halted by the judiciary after lawsuits were filed.
The Supreme Court's final ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the offspring of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on short-term permits, or it will end the provision entirely.
Next, the justices will set a time to hear oral arguments between the government and the suing parties, which involve foreign-born parents and their infants.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the rule that every person born in the country is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of foreign military forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The contested presidential order sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – largely in the Americas – that award immediate citizenship to any person born in their territory.
