The nation's highest court agrees to hear case questioning automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The nation's highest court has decided to review a significant case that challenges a century-old guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for individuals born within US borders.

On day one in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to end the policy, but the action was halted by the judiciary after lawsuits were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling will either support citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify those rights altogether.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear the case between the government and plaintiffs, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their infants.

The 14th Amendment

For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the doctrine that every person born in the nation is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel 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 disputed 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 non-permanent visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – largely in the North and South America – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.