The nation's highest court will consider legal challenge questioning birthright citizenship.

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that challenges a longstanding principle: birthright citizenship for those born on American soil.

On his first day in office this winter, the administration enacted a directive aiming to end this practice, but the move was halted by the judiciary after legal challenges were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will either support citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will nullify them entirely.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the administration and claimants, which comprise foreign-born parents and their newborns.

A Constitutional Cornerstone

For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that every person born in the United States is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and members 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 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 is one of about three dozen nations – mostly in the Americas – that provide instant citizenship to any person born within their borders.