US Supreme Court will review legal challenge questioning automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The top court has decided to review a significant case that puts to the test a historic guarantee: automatic citizenship for individuals born within US borders.

On his first day in office this January, the administration issued an executive order aiming to halt birthright citizenship, but the order was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after constitutional questions were filed.

The Supreme Court's final judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US without authorization or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them completely.

Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the government and plaintiffs, which comprise foreign-born parents and their infants.

The 14th Amendment

For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the doctrine that all individuals born in the nation is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign 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 disputed directive sought to refuse citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is among about three dozen nations – largely in the North and South America – that grant automatic citizenship to any person born on their soil.