US Supreme Court has decided to consider legal challenge challenging citizenship by birth.

The nation's highest court has decided to review a landmark case that challenges a historic constitutional right: automatic citizenship for people born on American soil.

On the inaugural day in office this January, the administration enacted a directive aiming to terminate birthright citizenship, but the action was struck down by federal courts after constitutional questions were filed.

The Supreme Court's eventual decision will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will nullify them altogether.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the government and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that anyone born in the United States is a American citizen, with exceptions 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 executive 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 short-term status.

The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – primarily in the Americas – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born in their territory.