The case involves an Alabama man who challenged his death sentence after a murder conviction because of his varying results in a series of I.Q. tests.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, expected by summer 2026, will determine whether the 14th Amendment secures what one brief calls a “sweeping…grant of U.S. citizenship” to virtually all people born on American soil, or whether, as critics argue, citizenship should instead depend on a “mutual recognition of allegiance” between family and state.