The nation's highest court agrees to hear legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a significant case that puts to the test a historic guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for people born within US borders.

On his first day in office this January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to terminate this practice, but the move was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after legal challenges were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's final ruling will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the children of foreign nationals who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them entirely.

Next, the justices will set a time to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which include immigrant parents and their newborns.

The Legal Foundation

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the principle that all individuals born in the nation is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and members of invading forces.

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

The challenged directive sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on temporary visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – primarily in the North and South America – that award automatic citizenship to all those born within their borders.