The nation's highest court will consider case challenging automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The top court has decided to review a pivotal case that challenges a historic principle: guaranteed citizenship for those born within US borders.

On his first day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to terminate the policy, but the order was halted by federal courts after constitutional questions were initiated.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately uphold citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on short-term permits, or it will overturn those rights altogether.

Next, the justices will set a time to hear the case between the government and the suing parties, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the principle that all individuals born in the United States is a citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and members of invading forces.

"All persons 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 illegally or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States belongs to a group of about 30 countries – largely in the Americas – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born in their territory.