US Supreme Court will review legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.

The US Supreme Court has will hear a pivotal case that questions a century-old principle: birthright citizenship for people born in the United States.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the President signed an order aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the move was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after legal challenges were initiated.

The Supreme Court's final decision will ultimately support citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US without authorization or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify those rights altogether.

Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear the case between the administration and plaintiffs, which involve foreign-born parents and their young children.

A Constitutional Cornerstone

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the doctrine that all individuals born in the United States is a US citizen, with specific conditions for children born to foreign diplomats and members 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 contested executive order sought to refuse citizenship to the children of people who are whether in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is among about three dozen nations – primarily in the Americas – that grant immediate citizenship to any person born on their soil.