The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in May regarding President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship.
Signed on his first day in office, the order reinterprets the 14th Amendment to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to non-legal residents.
Lower courts blocked the order, and appeals courts upheld those decisions. The Justice Department filed emergency appeals, prompting the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of scheduling a late-term hearing.
Trump argues the 14th Amendment was intended for formerly enslaved individuals, not for children of undocumented immigrants or tourists. He claims many legal scholars support his view.
The administration contends that people not lawfully in the U.S. are still under their home country’s jurisdiction, thus not qualifying for birthright citizenship under the Constitution.
