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

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a significant case that challenges a century-old constitutional right: automatic citizenship for individuals born in the United States.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the President signed an order aiming to terminate this practice, but the action was halted by the judiciary after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately support citizenship rights for the children of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will overturn the provision altogether.

Next, the court will set a time to hear arguments between the government and claimants, which comprise foreign-born parents and their infants.

The Legal Foundation

For over a century and a half, the Constitutional amendment has enshrined the rule that every person born in the nation is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to diplomats and personnel of occupying armies.

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

The contested directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – mostly in the Americas – that award automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil.