The nation's highest court agrees to review case questioning citizenship by birth.
The US Supreme Court has will hear a landmark case that challenges a longstanding constitutional right: automatic citizenship for individuals born on American soil.
On the inaugural day in office this January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to halt the policy, but the order was halted by lower courts after constitutional questions were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US illegally or on short-term permits, or it will end those rights entirely.
Next, the judges will calendar a session to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which involve foreign-born parents and their young children.
The Legal Foundation
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the principle that every person born in the United States is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and members of occupying armies.
"All persons 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 children of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States is among about 30 countries – primarily in the Americas – that award instant citizenship to all those born in their territory.
