By Julia Buckley, CNN(CNN) — Nearly 500 days since Italy’s millions-strong diaspora was hit by sweeping changes to the country’s citizenship laws in March 2025, the legal battle for Italian citizenship-by-descent continues. The so-called “minor issue,” imposed by the Italian government in October 2024, ruled that descendants born in so-called ius soli countries, which confer citizenship to anyone born there, would lose their Italian citizenship if their parents naturalized in the new country. But now, in a historic U-turn, Italy’s supreme court has overturned the “minor issue,” ruling that children who automatically acquired citizenship in the country of their birth did not lose their Italian citizenship when their parents relinquished their own. This hearing was overseen by the Sezioni Unite, or United Sections — the highest tier of the supreme court. “The decision reaffirms a fundamental principle: Italian citizenship iure sanguinis is acquired at birth; it constitutes an original status; it is imprescriptible, inalienable, and can be asserted at any time.