The US Supreme Court on Thursday announced that it would hear arguments over President Donald Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship on 15 May.
Recall that Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office seeking to limit birthright citizenship for children whose parents are in the United States illegally or on temporary visas, but it has been blocked in multiple appellate courts.
The Republican appealed the case to the Supreme Court on 13 March.
Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which decrees that anyone born on American soil is a citizen.
It was one of several amendments enacted in the wake of the Civil War to guarantee rights to formerly enslaved people.
According to the 14th Amendment, “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The order of the president was premised on the idea that anyone in the United States illegally, or on a visa, was not subject to the jurisdiction of the country, and therefore excluded from this category.
The order was due to come into effect on 19 February, but faced multiple lawsuits around the country that resulted in judges halting it.
District Judge John Coughenour, who heard the case in Washington state, described the president’s executive order as blatantly unconstitutional.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is,” Coughenour said.
