Justices to weigh Trump’s challenge to citizenship at birth for everyone

Plan would end that right for children of people here illegally or temporarily.

- By Davin G. SavaGE

President Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship for newborns whose parents are here illegally or temporarily will get a full hearing before the Supreme Court.

The justices agreed Friday to hear arguments on Trump's proposal after judges across the nation had declared it unconstitutional and blocked it from taking effect.

Trump administration lawyers contended that the government had been misreading the 14th Amendment for over a century.

“The Citizenship Clause was adopted to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children, not to the children of illegal aliens, birth tourists, and temporary visitors,” Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer wrote in his appeal.

Trump proposed a change, he said, because “the President recognized that automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens operates as a powerful incentive for illegal migration.”

“Not only do such children automatically become full citizens, but their citizenship is often promptly asserted to impede the removal of their illegal-alien parents,” he argued.