The nation's highest court will review legal challenge disputing citizenship by birth.

The top court has agreed to take on a landmark case that puts to the test a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for people born in the United States.

On day one in office this January, the President signed an order aiming to end this practice, but the action was subsequently blocked by lower courts after legal challenges were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's final judgment will either uphold citizenship rights for the offspring of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas, or it will nullify them altogether.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear the case between the government and claimants, which comprise immigrant parents and their young children.

The Legal Foundation

For over a century and a half, the Constitutional amendment has enshrined the doctrine that every person born in the country is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to diplomats and members of occupying armies.

"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 30 countries – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to any person born in their territory.