The US administration has asked the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, pushing the issue before the justices for the second time this year. Despite more than a century of understanding that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on people born in the United States, the Trump administration told the Supreme Court in an appeal that the notion was mistaken and that the view became ‘pervasive, with destructive consequences’.

The Justice Department filed two appeals on lower court rulings that blocked Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, which he signed on his first day back in office in January as a key part of his hardline approach toward immigration. The department wrote in the appeals that the lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines the country’s border security.

The department asked the Supreme Court to take up and resolve the case in its new term, which begins on 6th of next month. President Trump’s executive order 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, also called a green card holder. His action drew a series of lawsuits arguing among other things that the order violates a right enshrined in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.