Trump administration lawyers asked the justices to limit the sweep of decisions by three lower courts that issued nationwide pauses on the policy.

President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court in a series of emergency appeals Thursday to allow him to move forward with plans to end birthright citizenship, elevating a fringe legal theory that several lower courts have resoundingly rejected.

Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington have issued nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship.