America's top judicial body has decided to review lawsuit questioning citizenship by birth.
The top court has decided to review a landmark case that questions a historic constitutional right: automatic citizenship for those born in the United States.
On his first day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to halt this practice, but the move was struck down by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will either affirm citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them entirely.
Next, the justices will set a time to hear oral arguments between the administration and the suing parties, which involve parents who are immigrants and their infants.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the rule that all individuals born in the nation is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – mostly in the North and South America – that award automatic citizenship to anyone born within their borders.
