America's top judicial body agrees to hear lawsuit disputing birthright citizenship.

The US Supreme Court has decided to review a pivotal case that challenges a historic constitutional right: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born within US borders.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to terminate this practice, but the order was subsequently blocked by lower courts after constitutional questions were filed.

The Supreme Court's ultimate decision will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the infants of foreign nationals who are in the US without authorization or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them entirely.

Next, the court will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the doctrine that every person born in the nation is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of invading forces.

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

The disputed directive sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – mostly in the Americas – that grant immediate citizenship to all those born on their soil.