The nation's highest court has decided to review legal challenge disputing citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has will hear a pivotal case that challenges a historic guarantee: automatic citizenship for those born on American soil.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration issued an executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the action was subsequently blocked by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.

The Supreme Court's final decision will either affirm citizenship rights for the children of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on short-term permits, or it will overturn those rights completely.

Next, the judges will calendar a session to hear arguments between the administration and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the doctrine that anyone born in the nation is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of foreign military forces.

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

The disputed executive order sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is one of about three dozen nations – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to any person born on their soil.