US Supreme Court has decided to review lawsuit disputing automatic citizenship for those born in the US.

The top court has will hear a landmark case that challenges a historic constitutional right: automatic citizenship for individuals born within US borders.

On his first day in office this winter, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to halt this practice, but the order was halted by the judiciary after legal challenges were filed.

The Supreme Court's eventual judgment will ultimately affirm citizenship rights for the infants of foreign nationals who are in the US undocumented or on non-immigrant visas, or it will end those rights entirely.

Next, the justices will schedule a date to hear oral arguments between the government and claimants, which involve foreign-born parents and their newborns.

The 14th Amendment

For nearly 160 years, the Fourteenth Amendment has codified the principle that all individuals born in the country is a American citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to foreign diplomats and members of invading forces.

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

The contested directive sought to deny citizenship to the children of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on non-permanent visas.

The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – mostly in the Americas – that grant instant citizenship to any person born in their territory.