The nation's highest court will review legal challenge challenging citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that questions a longstanding principle: automatic citizenship for people born within US borders.

On his first day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to terminate the policy, but the action was struck down by federal courts after constitutional questions were initiated.

The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately support citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end them completely.

Next, the court will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which include immigrant parents and their young children.

The Legal Foundation

For nearly 160 years, the 14th Amendment has established the doctrine that every person born in the nation is a American citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and members of occupying armies.

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

The challenged directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the Americas – that provide automatic citizenship to any person born in their territory.