America's top judicial body has decided to review legal challenge challenging citizenship by birth.

The top court has agreed to take on a significant case that questions a historic principle: automatic citizenship for those born in the United States.

On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration enacted a directive aiming to end the policy, but the action was subsequently blocked by the judiciary after legal challenges were brought forward.

The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the children of migrants who are in the US undocumented or on short-term permits, or it will end the provision entirely.

Next, the judges will schedule a date to hear the case between the federal government and the suing parties, which involve parents who are immigrants and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For more than 150 years, the Constitutional amendment has codified the rule that anyone born in the nation is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign 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 presidential order sought to deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are whether in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on short-term status.

The United States belongs to a group of about 30 countries – mostly in the Americas – that award automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil.