Justice Samuel Alito noted that Scalia had illustrated how to apply textualism in the modern world.

Patel was born in New York to Indian immigrant parents, making him a U.S. citizen by birth under the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause. That personal background has drawn attention as the Trump administration pushes to narrow or reinterpret that same constitutional guarantee. It's unclear when Patel's parents became U.S. citizens.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned on Wednesday whether a ruling in favor of the Trump administration’s executive order on birthright citizenship would retroactively strip citizenship from people born on U.