Overview
- Friday’s grant of certiorari sets up arguments expected in early 2026 on the constitutionality of President Trump’s policy.
- The case targets a Jan. 20, 2025 executive order that seeks to deny automatic citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and those here on temporary visas.
- Lower courts have largely blocked the order, though a June Supreme Court decision allowed it to take effect in states that did not sue.
- The core legal question is how to read the 14th Amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” with United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) central to the analysis.
- The administration, represented by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, argues the clause was meant for freed slaves, while the ACLU and other challengers say longstanding law guarantees citizenship to nearly all born on U.S. soil.