Supreme Court keeps hold on Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship but sets May arguments WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday kept on hold President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship but agreed to hear arguments on the issue in May. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally has been halted nationwide by three district courts around the country. Appeals courts have declined to disturb those rulings. The Republican administration had sought to narrow those orders to allow for the policy to take effect in parts or most of the country while court challenges play out. That is expected to be the focus of the high court arguments on May 15. Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers in the country illegally. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The Trump administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, a phrase used in the amendment, and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.
Birthright citizenship dispute at the Supreme Court has broad implications for Trump's agenda Trump's plan to limit birthright citizenship to people born to at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident is likely to ultimately be struck down, most legal experts say. The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." But for now, the Supreme Court — which has a 6-3 conservative majority, including three Trump appointees — is focusing only on the question of whether lower-court judges had the authority to block the policy nationwide, as three did in different cases. The administration and its allies have for months raged at judges for issuing "universal injunctions" that have stymied Trump's aggressive use of executive power. Republicans in Congress quickly introduced legislation on the issue, which was approved by the House of Representatives last month. It has not come up for a vote in the Senate. "Universal injunctions issued by district court judges ... continue to fundamentally thwart the president's ability to implement his agenda," a Justice Department official said Tuesday in a call with reporters. The administration sees such rulings as a "direct attack" on presidential power, the official added. There have been 39 such rulings so far during Trump's second term, according to the Justice Department. Injunctions have, among other things, blocked some federal funding cuts and federal employee firings instituted under the direction of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. In other litigation, two courts blocked Trump's transgender military ban nationwide before the Supreme Court intervened and allowed it to go into effect. The administration is asking the court to limit the scope of the birthright citizenship injunctions so that they apply only to individual people, organizations that sued or potentially the 22 states that challenged Trump's executive order. If the Supreme Court agrees, the Trump administration may be able to implement the policy in part, even as litigation continues and more people sue to obtain rulings that apply to them.