The Department of Justice said it will ask the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, Newsweek reported.
The announcement was disclosed in a joint status report filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Trump's executive order, signed on his first day in office, called for the federal government to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to temporary immigrant parents and those in the country illegally. A district court in Seattle issued an injunction against the order two weeks later.
Courts in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have also ruled against Trump's executive order.
The Department of Justice hopes to get the case before the Supreme Court during its next term, beginning in October, Newsweek reported. The department has not said which of the ongoing cases it will use as basis of its appeal.
The 14th Amendment states, "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."
In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that the citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment means anyone born in the United States was a naturalized citizen.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.