US Supreme Court has decided to review legal challenge questioning automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The US Supreme Court has decided to review a significant case that questions a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for people born on American soil.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to halt birthright citizenship, but the order was halted by the judiciary after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's final judgment will either support citizenship rights for the offspring of foreign nationals who are in the US illegally or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify them altogether.

Next, the court will calendar a session to hear arguments between the government and plaintiffs, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

A Constitutional Cornerstone

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that all individuals born in the United States is a citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign 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 disputed executive order sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is one of about 30 countries – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born within their borders.