The Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hold oral arguments next month to consider whether the Trump administration can partially implement an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.
The birthright citizenship order seeks to limit automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are citizens or lawful permanent residents. Specifically, it excludes children born to undocumented mothers, those in the U.S. temporarily, or children whose fathers lack legal status or citizenship. Under the directive, federal agencies were instructed to stop recognizing U.S. citizenship for children born after February 19.
The high court scheduled the hearing for May 15 at 10 a.m., to hear the Justice Department’s request for emergency relief. These injunctions have so far prevented the federal government from implementing a new framework that would deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents without permanent legal status.
The administration is asking the Court to scale back three federal injunctions that currently prevent enforcement of President Trump’s order across the country. If the Supreme Court grants the request, the administration would only be restricted from applying the executive order to a limited group: the individual plaintiffs, certain immigrant advocacy groups, and residents of 22 states.
The acting solicitor general wrote in the application to the Court “enough is enough,” urging the justices to limit the injunctions to the individual plaintiffs and specific group members involved in the case: “At the very least,” she added, “the Court should permit federal agencies to prepare and issue public guidance on the new policy.”
Opponents of the order have urged the Supreme Court to maintain the lower court rulings. Officials from 18 states, along with Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, argued in court filings that the administration’s request would effectively strip citizenship from potentially hundreds of thousands of children born in the U.S.
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