The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to allow President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting the longstanding concept of birthright citizenship to start taking effect while a lawsuit proceeds.
The oral arguments Thursday are the first before the nation’s highest court in any of the numerous lawsuits challenging Trump’s sweeping executive orders, many of which test the limits of presidential power under the U.S. Constitution.
The hearing could provide clues about which way the nine justices are leaning on a narrow issue that could have a broad impact: whether a lower court can issue an injunction that blocks White House policies nationwide while litigation proceeds.
New York has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration to challenge its new policies and has temporarily prevented federal officials from pulling funding for public health and education programs as well as dismantling certain federal agencies that support museums and libraries.
The administration asked the Supreme Court to curb three rulings that blocked Trump from implementing his birthright citizenship policy nationwide while litigation goes forward. The government seeks to limit those rulings to only the seven pregnant women who sued, along with 11 identified members of two advocacy groups that are also involved.
The Supreme Court may eventually hear arguments on the legality of Trump’s executive order itself, which seeks to restrict birthright citizenship so that babies born in the US can’t become citizens unless at least one parent is a citizen or permanent resident. The right is protected in the 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, which states “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The president’s order holds that the children of undocumented immigrants aren’t “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US and therefore aren’t covered by the 14th Amendment. Courts have widely interpreted the clause to mean that being born on US soil, even to undocumented immigrants, guarantees American citizenship to the child.
Trump said Thursday on his Truth Social platform that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause wasn’t intended to apply to undocumented immigrants. He said it was about “Civil War results, and the babies of slaves who our politicians felt, correctly, needed protection.”
Amanda D’Ambrosio contributed reporting to this article.
