The United States Supreme Court has agreed to take up one of the most consequential immigration disputes of the Trump era, setting the stage for a ruling that could redefine who qualifies as an American. The justices announced on Friday that they will hear arguments on the legality of President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, a move that lower courts have repeatedly struck down as unconstitutional. A final decision is expected by June, although the court has not fixed a hearing date.
At the center of the case is an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office. The directive sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who lack legal status or who are in the country on temporary visas. Federal judges swiftly blocked the order, arguing that it collides directly with the Fourteenth Amendment, which says that anyone born on US soil and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen.
Trump’s lawyers have advanced a narrow reading of that clause, asserting that undocumented migrants and temporary visitors do not fall under the country’s jurisdiction and therefore their children should be excluded. The Supreme Court dismissed a similar argument more than a century ago, in an 1898 ruling that affirmed the broad reach of the amendment.
Read also: Peru’s Ousted ‘President Of Poor’ Gets 11-Yr Coup Sentence
The administration has also argued that the amendment was crafted to protect formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, not the children of recent arrivals. In filings to the court, Solicitor General John Sauer contended that extending citizenship to the children of undocumented migrants has created incentives for unlawful entry and inflicted “substantial harm” on the country.
The order never took effect. Judges in multiple states halted it, and one, Judge John Coughenour in Washington, described it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”
The case now reaches a court with a solid conservative majority, three of whose members were appointed by Trump. Rights groups remain cautiously hopeful. Cecillia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union said she believes the justices will preserve a principle that has shaped American identity for more than 150 years.
The court has already upheld several of Trump’s immigration policies this year, including expanded deportations and the rollback of humanitarian protections. The birthright citizenship case marks its most sweeping test so far.