US Supreme Court agrees to hear lawsuit challenging citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has decided to review a pivotal case that questions a historic guarantee: birthright citizenship for people born within US borders.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration issued an executive order aiming to terminate this practice, but the move was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after lawsuits were filed.

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

Next, the judges will set a time to hear arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which involve foreign-born parents and their infants.

A Constitutional Cornerstone

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the principle that all individuals born in the country is a American citizen, with specific conditions for children born to diplomats and members of occupying armies.

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

The disputed presidential order sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is one of about a minority of states – largely in the Western Hemisphere – that grant automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil.