The nation's highest court agrees to review legal challenge challenging birthright citizenship.

The US Supreme Court has decided to review a pivotal case that puts to the test a century-old constitutional right: automatic citizenship for people born within US borders.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the President enacted a directive aiming to end the policy, but the move was struck down by lower courts after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's final ruling will ultimately support citizenship rights for the offspring of foreign nationals who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will overturn them entirely.

Next, the judges will set a time to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which involve parents who are immigrants and their infants.

The Legal Foundation

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the rule that anyone born in the nation is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel 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 challenged presidential order sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.

The United States is among about three dozen nations – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that provide automatic citizenship to any person born in their territory.