The nation's highest court will consider legal challenge challenging birthright citizenship.

The US Supreme Court has will hear a landmark case that puts to the test a longstanding constitutional right: automatic citizenship for individuals born in the United States.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, President Donald Trump enacted a directive aiming to end birthright citizenship, but the move was subsequently blocked by federal courts after legal challenges were filed.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will either support citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US without authorization or on temporary visas, or it will end the provision entirely.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear the case between the federal government and claimants, which involve parents who are immigrants and their young children.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Constitutional amendment has codified the doctrine that anyone born in the nation is a American citizen, with exceptions for children born to foreign diplomats and personnel of occupying armies.

"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

The disputed executive order sought to withhold citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States is one of about three dozen nations – mostly in the Americas – that award immediate citizenship to any person born in their territory.