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

The US Supreme Court has will hear a significant case that puts to the test a historic principle: automatic citizenship for individuals born within US borders.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to end this practice, but the order was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after constitutional questions were filed.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately uphold citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end them altogether.

Next, the court will schedule a date to hear arguments between the administration and the suing parties, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.

A Constitutional Cornerstone

For over a century and a half, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the rule that all individuals born in the country is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel 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 withhold citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on non-permanent visas.

The United States is among about a minority of states – primarily in the Western Hemisphere – that grant immediate citizenship to anyone born on their soil.