Washington
\nHanding President Donald Trump a stinging defeat, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected his audacious attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States \u2014 a right long woven into the fabric of American society \u2014 scuttling one of his top priorities in his crackdown on immigration.
\nThe 6-3 ruling marked the second time this year that the court has invalidated a major Trump initiative, following its February decision to strike down his \u200bsweeping global tariffs.
\nThe justices upheld a lower court\u2019s decision that blocked Trump\u2019s executive order directing US agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, also called \u200ca \u201cgreen card\u201d holder.
\nChallengers to Trump\u2019s order argued that it violates language in the US Constitution\u2019s 14th Amendment that confers citizenship to those born in the United States who are \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof\u201d.
\nTrump, who has repeatedly tested the limits of presidential power in domestic and foreign policy, issued the order last year on his first day back in office as part of a suite of policies to crack down on legal and illegal immigration. Critics have accused the Republican president of racial and religious discrimination in his approach to immigration.
\nThe Supreme Court weighs in on what it means to be an American citizen just ahead of the July 4 holiday, when the US marks the 250th anniversary of \u200bits founding.
\nAhead of the ruling, some experts had estimated that Trump\u2019s directive could affect the legal status of as many as 250,000 babies born each year and could require the families of millions more to prove the citizenship status of their newborns.
\nA class-action suit
\nThe legal challenge to Trump\u2019s directive, considered \u200bby the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, involved a class-action lawsuit filed in New Hampshire by parents and children whose citizenship was threatened by the directive.
\nThe 14th Amendment has long been interpreted as guaranteeing \u2060citizenship for babies born in the US, with only narrow exceptions such as the children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.
\nThe provision at issue, known as the Citizenship Clause, states: \u201cAll persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, \u200bare citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.\u201d
\nThe administration has asserted that the phrase \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof\u201d means that being born in the US is not enough for citizenship, and excludes the babies of immigrants who are in the country illegally or whose presence \u200bis lawful but temporary, such as university students or those on work visas.
\nCitizenship is granted only to the children of those whose \u201cprimary allegiance\u201d is to the US, including citizens and permanent residents, the administration has argued. Such allegiance is established through \u201clawful domicile\u201d, which lawyers for the administration define as \u201clawful, permanent residence within a nation, with intent to remain\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington Handing President Donald Trump a stinging defeat, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected his audacious attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States \u2014 a right long woven into the fabric of American society \u2014 scuttling one of his top priorities in his crackdown on immigration. The 6-3 ruling marked the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99687,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99677\/revisions\/99687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}