US Supreme Court to hear Trump bid to enforce birthright citizenship order

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Thursday it will hear arguments next month over Donald Trump's bid to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict automatic birthright citizenship, a key pillar of the Republican president's hardline approach toward immigration.

The justices, in an unsigned order, did not immediately act on a request by Trump's administration to narrow the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges in Washington state, Massachusetts and Maryland that halted his January 20 order while the matter is litigated.

Instead, the court deferred any decision on that request until it hears arguments in the case set for May 15.

Trump's order, signed on his first day back in office, directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.

In a series of lawsuits, plaintiffs including 22 Democratic state attorneys general, immigrant rights advocates and some expectant mothers argued that Trump's order violates a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

The 14th Amendment's citizenship clause states that all "persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

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