US Supreme Court will review legal challenge disputing birthright citizenship.
The top court has will hear a landmark case that puts to the test a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for individuals born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this January, the President issued an executive order aiming to end the policy, but the order was halted by federal courts after legal challenges were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's ultimate judgment will ultimately uphold citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on temporary visas, or it will nullify those rights altogether.
Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear arguments between the federal government and the suing parties, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.
The 14th Amendment
For over a century and a half, the 14th Amendment has enshrined the doctrine that every person born in the United States is a US citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US illegally or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States belongs to a group of about three dozen nations – mostly in the Western Hemisphere – that grant instant citizenship to any person born on their soil.
