May 15 (UPI) -- The Trump administration will begin arguments Thursday before the Supreme Court to challenge the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees that anyone born in the United States is granted citizenship.
The first sentence of the 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."
President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account Thursday morning, calling for restricted access to birthright citizenship.
"Birthright citizenship was not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent citizens of the United States of America, and bringing their families with them," Trump wrote.
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He also wrote that birthright citizenship has "nothing to do with illegal immigration for people wanting to scam our country, from all parts of the world, which they have done for many years," and that when it was made law "we didn't have people pouring into our country from all over South America, and the rest of the world."
The 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War, with the intention to reverse an earlier Supreme Court decision, the Dred Scott case, which had declared Black people could never be American citizens.
Trump targeted the 14th Amendment from the very start of his second term, as on Inauguration Day he put out an executive order that alleged the 14th Amendment "does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States" if the mother or father is not a U.S. citizen, or if the mother or father was only temporarily in the United States at the time of birth.
Three federal judges from Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington state have since ruled the order unconstitutional, and three separate appeals courts have rejected the request to unblock those orders as appeals against the decisions are ongoing.
This has led the Trump administration to bring its case to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis, but not to seek an outcome in regard to his executive order. Instead, the administration seeks to have the court review the decisions of the federal judges, whose rulings stand as nationwide judgements despite their judicatures being state-based.
In other words, while the Supreme Court may hear some mention of the legality of blanket birthright citizenship, it is more likely that the Trump legal team will aim at the national enforcement of a federal judge's decision, and if its own birthright policy can go into effect as cases in regard to birthright citizenship can proceed while under appeal.
A decision from the Court is expected to come down sometime between late June and early July.
