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

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a significant case that questions a historic principle: automatic citizenship for people born within US borders.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to halt the policy, but the move was struck down by lower courts after constitutional questions were initiated.

The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will end them completely.

Next, the justices will calendar a session to hear arguments between the federal government and claimants, which involve foreign-born parents and their young children.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has established the doctrine that all individuals born in the nation is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats 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 contested presidential order sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are whether in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.

The United States is one of about a minority of states – mostly in the North and South America – that grant instant citizenship to all those born in their territory.