Supreme Court to Consider Birthright Citizenship Case Challenging Fourteenth Amendment The Supreme Court is set to hear a case concerning birthright citizenship, challenging the Fourteenth Amendment. This follows a previous executive order from a former president aiming to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented or temporary visa-holding parents. The case revisits a historical struggle against the Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to Black people. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, enacted after the Civil War, was aimed at reversing the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, a ruling that declared Black people, enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States. The Amendment says:"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.". That's because 127 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled to the contrary. Moreover, as if to put icing on the cake, Congress in 1940 passed a statute codifying birthright citizenship for any child born in the U.S. Trump, however, has long maintained that the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship. So, on Day 1 of his second presidential term, he issued an executive order barring automatic citizenship for any baby born in the U.S. whose parents entered the country illegally, or who were here legally but on a temporary visa. Now the case goes to the Supreme Court where it will almost certainly result in a historic ruling. Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.