America's top judicial body agrees to review case questioning citizenship by birth.
The nation's highest court has will hear a pivotal case that challenges a century-old principle: guaranteed citizenship for people born in the United States.
On his first day in office this winter, President Donald Trump enacted a directive aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the order was subsequently blocked by lower courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's final judgment will ultimately support citizenship rights for the children of foreign nationals who are in the US without authorization or on temporary visas, or it will nullify those rights altogether.
Next, the judges will calendar a session to hear the case between the federal government and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.
The Legal Foundation
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principle that every person born in the United States is a citizen, with certain exclusions 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 disputed presidential order sought to withhold 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 – largely in the Americas – that provide automatic citizenship to all those born within their borders.
