Washington (AP) The status of President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship was left unclear by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Friday, which held that individual judges do not have the power to issue countrywide injunctions.
The Republican president, who has grumbled about certain judges putting up roadblocks to his agenda, won the outcome.
However, a conservative majority did not rule out the prospect that the modifications to birthright citizenship may continue to be rejected across the country. Under Trump’s order, children born in the United States to illegal immigrants would not be granted citizenship.
Any person born in the United States, even offspring of illegal immigrants, is automatically granted birthright citizenship. Soon after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, establishing the right.
In the famous 1898 Supreme Court ruling United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the court ruled that the only children who were not granted U.S. citizenship at birth were those born on foreign ships, to members of sovereign Native American tribes, to diplomats who were loyal to another government, and to enemies who were in the country during hostile occupation.
The United States is one of roughly thirty nations that practice birthright citizenship, sometimes known as the “right of the soil” or jus soli. The majority, including Canada and Mexico, are in the Americas.
In the executive order he signed on his first day in office, Trump and his supporters argued that the requirements for obtaining U.S. citizenship should be more stringent. Trump described this as a profound and priceless gift.
According to the Trump administration, children of noncitizens are not entitled to citizenship because they are not under US authority, as stated in the amendment.
However, in their lawsuit to block the executive order, states, immigrants, and rights groups have charged that the administration is attempting to undermine the more widely accepted definition of birthright citizenship that has existed since the passage of the amendment.
The administration has consistently been ruled against by judges.
The Justice Department had maintained that individual courts were not empowered to enforce their decisions across the country.
Instead, the Trump administration wanted the judges to let Trump’s proposal take effect for everyone, excluding the few individuals and organizations that filed the lawsuit. If not, the administration contended that the 22 states that filed the lawsuit may keep the plan blocked for the time being. A different order that is not relevant to this case covers New Hampshire.
As a backup plan, the administration requested that, at the very least, it be permitted to publicly publish its intentions for implementing the policy should it be permitted to go into force.
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