The conservative Supreme Court on Friday delayed ruling on President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, the bedrock principle that anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen.
The top court agreed with Trump’s effort to limit the power of federal judges to block executive orders nationwide. But it didn’t rule on the legality of his order limiting citizenship to children of parents who have the legal right to live in the U.S.
The blockbuster 119-page ruling came on the final day of the top court’s spring season of major decisions.
Trump issued an executive order soon after taking office in January that barred government officials from recognizing the children of undocumented immigrants as U.S. citizens, effectively ending birthright citizenship.
Advocates for immigrants sued to block the policy quickly won injunctions from several federal district court judges.
Trump’s Department of Justice appealed those rulings, claiming that the 14th Amendment was only intended to apply to the children of recently freed slaves, not children of undocumented immigrants.
Trump says the policy incentivizes undocumented immigrants to come to the U.S. so they can have children who will be U.S. citizens.
Birthright citizenship was enacted in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment and has been upheld by the Supreme Court several times since.
It says anyone “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,” wording that would appear to unequivocally include children of undocumented immigrants born on U.S. soil.
The White House also wants the Supreme Court to stop judges from issuing what it derides as “universal injunctions,” like the ones that temporarily blocked his birthright citizenship edict and many of his executive orders on a range of issues.
Trump says no one judge should be allowed to block a policy nationwide. But proponents say they should have the power to protect citizens against overreach from the president or other authorities.
This story is developing and will be updated.
