The nation's highest court will consider legal challenge questioning citizenship by birth.
The nation's highest court has will hear a significant case that puts to the test a longstanding constitutional right: automatic citizenship for people born in the United States.
On day one in office this winter, the President enacted a directive aiming to end this practice, but the move was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after constitutional questions were brought forward.
The Supreme Court's eventual decision will either uphold citizenship rights for the children of immigrants who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will nullify the provision altogether.
Next, the court will schedule a date to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which include foreign-born parents and their young children.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has established the doctrine that all individuals born in the country is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to diplomats and personnel of invading forces.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The disputed directive sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are whether in the US illegally or are in the country on temporary visas.
The United States is among about a minority of states – primarily in the Americas – that grant automatic citizenship to all those born on their soil.
