Trump administration asks Supreme Court to partly allow birthright citizenship restrictions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect while legal fights play out.

In emergency applications filed at the high court on Thursday, the administration asked the justices to narrow court orders entered by district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington that blocked the order President Donald Trump signed shortly after beginning his second term.

The order currently is blocked nationwide. Three federal appeals courts have rejected the administration's pleas, including one in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

The order would deny citizenship to those born after Feb. 19 whose parents are in the country illegally. It also forbids U.S. agencies from issuing any document or accepting any state document recognizing citizenship for such children.

Roughly two dozen states have sued over the executive order, which they say violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of citizenship to anyone born inside the United States.

The Justice Department argues that individual judges lack the power to give nationwide effect to their rulings.

Five conservative justices, a majority of the court, have raised concerns in the past about nationwide, or universal, injunctions.

But the court has never ruled on the matter.

The Trump administration made a similar argument in Trump's first term, including in the Supreme Court fight over his ban on travel to the U.S. from several Muslim majority countries.

The court eventually upheld Trump's policy, but did not take up the issue of nationwide injunctions.