Supreme Court Takes Trump Birthright Citizenship Case

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on President Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship.

The high court announced Friday that it will hear arguments regarding Trump’s executive order that would revoke the automatic guarantee that any child born on U.S. soil—even to an illegal immigrant parents—would be an American citizen.

Trump’s order has not gone into effect, since courts previously blocked it.

This has the potential to overturn a Supreme Court precedent going back to 1898, when the majority upheld birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, which was enacted to grant citizenship to freed slaves after the Civil War.

Several left-leaning immigration groups, along with 22 states, sued to overturn Trump’s executive order that he signed on the first day of his second term. 

In one sentence about the case, the court issued an order Friday saying, “Trump, president of the U.S. et al. v. Barbara, et al. The petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment is granted.”

Oral arguments will be held next year, with a ruling likely by the end of June. 

The provision of the 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The point of contention in the case is the phrase, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued was misinterpreted by the court’s late 19th century ruling. 

More than 22 U.S. states and immigrants’ rights groups have sued the Trump administration to block the change to birthright citizenship, arguing in court filings that the executive order is both unconstitutional and “unprecedented.”