The U.S. Supreme Court will attempt on Thursday morning to solve a pressing legal question that has vexed the court for years. And it will do so in a trio of cases that could upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
During a rare May hearing set for just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the court will consider whether to reinstate President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order purporting to deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders. Three federal courts have blocked the Trump administration from implementing the executive order anywhere in the country, leading to these emergency appeals from the president’s lawyers at the Department of Justice.