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

The US Supreme Court has decided to review a significant case that questions a historic constitutional right: birthright citizenship for those born on American soil.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the President enacted a directive aiming to terminate the policy, but the order was halted by lower courts after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's ultimate judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will overturn them completely.

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

The 14th Amendment

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the rule that anyone born in the United States is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of foreign military forces.

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

The contested directive sought to withhold citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that provide immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.