US Supreme Court to hear Trump birthright citizenship case on May 15

Washington: The US Supreme Court will hear arguments over President Donald Trump s move to end birthright citizenship on May 15, the court announced T...

Washington: The US Supreme Court will hear arguments over President Donald Trump's move to end birthright citizenship on May 15, the court announced Thursday.

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. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court on March 13.

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.

The 14th Amendment says, in part: "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."

Trump's order 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.