In a key ruling , the United States Supreme Court upheld the foundational idea of birthright citizenship, declaring that an executive order cannot deny US citizenship to children born in the country to non-permanent residents and undocumented immigrants.
The 6-3 ruling affirmed the long-accepted interpretation that the Constitution instinctively guarantees birthright citizenship to children born in the United States. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights-to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,'” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
This verdict follows months of political debate around the issue that the Republican Party frames as key to the overall US immigration system, arguing that the interpretation is outdated and applied only to children of slaves at the time of its framing in the 19th century.