The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are shortly to decide whether to rule for or against President Trump’s controversial attempt to deny citizenship to persons born in the US if their parents are in the country illegally or visiting temporarily.

In a few months, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on one of President Donald J. Trump’s most audacious attempts to alter the legal and ­demographic status quo: an executive order signed on the first day of his current term, purporting to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents illegally in the country.

After oral arguments on 1 April, the consensus of legal scholars seems to be that the court, including some of Trump’s own appointees, will rule against the President in the case of “Trump, President of US v. Barbara”. But how it might do so is crucial.
The court’s ruling – and how it chooses to frame the issue – will have more than legal significance. The case arose at a time of a renewed and sometimes ugly debate – stoked by Trump but with a long history – about who qualifies as an American, whether some immigrants without legal status should be allowed to remain and be treated compassionately and whether the United States is rightly conceived as a nation of immigrants.

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