April 17 (UPI) — The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments May 15 over the potential restriction of birthright citizenship, the court announced Thursday.
After hearing the arguments, the justices will render a decision in either June or July, and enforcement of the executive order remains blocked nationwide, NBC News and NPR reported.
President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 signed an executive order ending the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision for anyone who is born within the nation’s borders.
The executive order prohibits birthright citizenship for children whose mothers unlawfully entered the United States or are only temporarily in the country and whose fathers are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents at their time of birth.
Federal district court judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Western Washington state blocked enforcement of Trump’s executive order, which prompted Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris to file three requests for the Supreme Court to rule on the matter.
“These cases … raise important constitutional questions with major ramifications for securing the border,” Harris said in a March 13 Supreme Court filing to request a hearing.
She also asked the court to limit injunctions imposed by the three federal district court judges to only parties that are located within the respective federal district courts’ jurisdictions.
“Years of experience have shown that the executive branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere,” Harris said in the hearing request.
Washington state Attorney General Brown says the birthright citizenship injunctions must be enforced equally throughout the nation.
Anything less than uniform enforcement would cause thousands of infants to be detained or removed in locales that otherwise would not be subject to the three federal district court injunctions, he said.
“If any injunction warranted a nationwide scope, it is this one,” Brown told the Supreme Court in a response to the Trump administration’s appeal.
U.S. District Court of Western Washington Judge John Coughenour earlier granted Brown’s motion seeking a nationwide injunction against enforcing Trump’s executive order.
Federal appeals courts likewise refused to overturn injunctions imposed by Coughenour and federal district court judges in Maryland and Massachusetts.
