The nation's highest court has decided to consider legal challenge disputing birthright citizenship.

The nation's highest court has agreed to take on a landmark case that challenges a historic guarantee: automatic citizenship for people born in the United States.

On his first day in office this January, the administration issued an executive order aiming to end the policy, but the order was struck down by lower courts after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's eventual decision will ultimately support citizenship rights for the children of foreign nationals who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end those rights entirely.

Next, the court will set a time to hear arguments between the government and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their young children.

The Legal Foundation

For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has enshrined the rule that every person born in the United States is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to embassy personnel and personnel of invading forces.

"Every individual born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

The disputed presidential order sought to deny 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 belongs to a group of about a minority of states – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that award immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.