America's top judicial body agrees to review legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.

The top court has decided to review a pivotal case that challenges a century-old principle: automatic citizenship for people born within US borders.

On day one in office this winter, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the order was struck down by the judiciary after constitutional questions were initiated.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the offspring of foreign nationals who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will overturn the provision altogether.

Next, the judges will set a time to hear oral arguments between the administration and plaintiffs, which involve foreign-born parents and their young children.

The 14th Amendment

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the doctrine that every person born in the nation is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign diplomats 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 challenged executive order sought to refuse citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on temporary visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about 30 countries – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that provide immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.