The nation's highest court has decided to consider case challenging citizenship by birth.
The top court has agreed to take on a pivotal case that puts to the test a longstanding guarantee: birthright citizenship for those born in the United States.
On day one in office this winter, the President issued an executive order aiming to halt this practice, but the order was subsequently blocked by lower courts after legal challenges were filed.
The Supreme Court's eventual ruling will either affirm citizenship rights for the infants of immigrants who are in the US without authorization or on short-term permits, or it will overturn those rights altogether.
Next, the court will set a time to hear oral arguments between the administration and the suing parties, which include foreign-born parents and their newborns.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For nearly 160 years, the 14th Amendment has established the doctrine that every person born in the nation is a citizen, with exceptions for children born to embassy personnel and members of foreign military forces.
"All persons 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 refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US in violation of immigration law or are in the country on non-permanent visas.
The United States is one of about three dozen nations – primarily in the Americas – that award immediate citizenship to any person born on their soil.
