America's top judicial body will hear legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has decided to review a landmark case that puts to the test a historic guarantee: birthright citizenship for people born within US borders.

On day one in office this winter, the President issued an executive order aiming to halt the policy, but the action was struck down by federal courts after constitutional questions were filed.

The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the children of foreign nationals 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 arguments between the federal government and plaintiffs, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that anyone born in the United States is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel 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 challenged directive sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on temporary visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – largely in the Americas – that award automatic citizenship to anyone born in their territory.