America's top judicial body agrees to review legal challenge challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The nation's highest court has will hear a pivotal case that questions a longstanding constitutional right: automatic citizenship for people born within US borders.

On day one in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to terminate the policy, but the move was halted by lower courts after lawsuits were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end those rights completely.

Next, the court will set a time to hear the case between the administration and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has enshrined the doctrine that anyone born in the United States is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel 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 contested directive sought to withhold citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on temporary visas.

The United States is one of about 30 countries – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that award automatic citizenship to any person born within their borders.