Supreme Court will hear arguments for ending birthright citizenship

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear arguments for and against President Donald Trump's order to end birthright citizenship.

The Trump administration appealed a lower court order that struck down the restrictions in July over a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of children affected by the policy.

'We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.'

Trump issued the Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship executive order on his first day in office of his second term. The order prohibits granting citizenship to persons born in the country to mothers illegally or temporarily in the U.S. and whose father is not a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.

Opponents of birthright citizenship say it stems from a false reading of the 14th Amendment, which was intended to apply only to former slaves when it was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War.

"Congress has never passed a federal statute that confers birthright citizenship. So it's not in the Constitution, it's not in federal law, it's not in the legislative history, and yet it is being used," argued BlazeTV host Mark Levin.

"Birthright citizenship is the argument, is the position, is the policy the Democrat Party holds on to because they want monopoly power for all time," he added, "and they don't care if it's foreigners or not."

Supporters of the policy point to the longstanding precedent of automatically granting citizenship to babies born in America.

"No president can change the 14th Amendment’s fundamental promise of citizenship," said ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang. "We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term."

The case will be heard in the spring, and a decision is expected by early summer.

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Others point to the troublesome practice of "citizenship tourism" as justification for the order.

"There is a tourism industry surrounding this whole birthright citizenship. Women come here before they give birth so that they can just give birth here, and then their babies become United States citizens. That’s nuts, and to [Trump's] point, nobody else does this," said Sara Gonzales of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" on BlazeTV.

The birthright order would not take away citizenship from those who already obtained it before the order went into effect.

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