ISTANBUL
The US Supreme Court is expected to wrap up its nine-month term on Friday, issuing several major rulings, including a high-profile case involving former President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship.
With a 6-3 conservative majority, the court still has six pending decisions from cases it heard since the term began in October.
These remaining cases involve issues such as voting rights, religious freedoms, and healthcare.
The most closely watched case concerns birthright citizenship -- not whether Trump’s proposal is legal, but whether federal judges had the authority to issue nationwide injunctions to block it while the legal battle continues.
The court’s ruling on this could have broad implications, especially since judges frequently ruled against Trump’s expansive use of executive authority.
The justices could also choose to bypass the injunction issue and directly assess the legality of the policy itself.
Under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, birthright citizenship is granted to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
For generations, both liberal and conservative legal scholars have agreed that nearly everyone born on US soil is automatically a citizen, except in limited cases like children of foreign diplomats.
Other pending decisions include whether religious conservative parents can exclude their young children from reading LGBTQ-themed books in school, a long-standing case over the legality of Louisiana’s congressional districts, a Texas law that restricts minors from accessing adult websites, a legal challenge to a provision of the Affordable Care Act related to preventive care, the legality of a Federal Communications Commission program that helps provide internet and phone access in underserved communities.
The Supreme Court traditionally recesses for the summer and resumes in October.
However, justices will likely continue to address urgent matters that arise in the meantime -- a trend that has become more common since Trump’s presidency.