America's top judicial body agrees to review legal challenge disputing citizenship by birth.

The top court has will hear a landmark case that questions a longstanding principle: birthright citizenship for those born on American soil.

On his first day in office this January, the administration signed an order aiming to end the policy, but the order was struck down by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.

The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of foreign nationals who are in the US without authorization or on temporary visas, or it will end them completely.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which comprise foreign-born parents and their young children.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that every person born in the nation is a American citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and members of foreign military forces.

"All persons 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 refuse citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – largely in the Americas – that award immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.