US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump

The US has granted citizenship to everyone born in the country since 1868, with the right enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, and bolstered by later US Supreme Court rulings. Passed in the aftermath of the US civil war, the 14th Amendment - which was originally intended for recently freed slaves - reads that "all persons born or naturalised, and subject to the jurisdiction thereoef, are citizens of the United States" "Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights - to freely participate in our political community," Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land'," he wrote."We keep that promise today," the chief justice said.The Trump administration argued that the "jurisdiction thereof" mentioned in the 14th Amendment should exclude children of people who do not live in the country permanently. Three of the court's nine justices dissented from the decision: Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito. Justice Thomas argued that the 14th Amendment was being "repurposed for political projects" and that the freed slaves it was originally intended for "were Americans" with no allegiance to other countries. Another of the dissenting Justices, Samuel Alito, described the ruling as a "serious mistake" that "confers citizenship on virtually anyone who happens to be born in this country", including those who come to the US with the explicit purpose of giving birth to a child and then returning to their country of origin.