The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will decide the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, a policy signed on his first day in office that would deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas.
The order has never taken effect, having been blocked nationwide by multiple lower courts that ruled it violates the 14th Amendment.
The case, originating from a class-action lawsuit in New Hampshire and led by the American Civil Liberties Union, will be argued this spring with a final ruling expected by early summer.
Every federal court that has reviewed the policy has found it unconstitutional or likely so, citing the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.
The clause, enacted after the Civil War to secure citizenship for formerly enslaved people, has been interpreted for over a century to include nearly all children born on American soil.
The Trump administration argues that children of noncitizens are not fully “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore fall outside the amendment’s protection.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer has urged the court to restore what he describes as the clause’s original meaning, excluding children of temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants.
The administration’s position is supported by 24 Republican-led states and 27 Republican lawmakers.
The justices previously limited lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions but declined to address the policy’s underlying legality until now.