Donald Trump took the fight over his attempt to restrict automatic U.S. birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court on Thursday as the Republican president's administration asked the justices to narrow a judicial block imposed on this key element of his hardline approach toward immigration.
The Justice Department made the request challenging the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued against Trump's order by federal courts in Washington, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Trump's order, signed on his first day back in office on January 20, directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The order was intended to apply starting February 19, but has been blocked nationwide by multiple federal judges.
Trump's action has drawn a series of lawsuits from plaintiffs including Democratic state attorneys general, immigrant rights advocates and expectant mothers. They argue among other things that Trump's order violates a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.
The 14th Amendment's citizenship clause states that all "persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
The administration contends that the 14th Amendment, long understood to confer citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States, does not extend to immigrants who are in the country illegally or even to immigrants whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as university students or those on work visas.
Its request to the justices marks its latest trip to the top U.S. judicial body to defend Trump's actions. The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term as president.
Trump's push to restrict birthright citizenship is part of a broader immigration and border crackdown including tasking the U.S. military with aiding border security and issuing a broad ban on asylum.
