On Thursday, the Supreme Court appeared ready to keep stopping President Trump's rules about who can become a citizen, but they also wanted to find a way to limit the power of courts to make orders that affect the whole country.

It wasn't clear what this decision would be, but most judges were worried about what would happen if the government could stop children born in the US to illegal immigrants from becoming citizens, even for a short time.

The judges listened to reasons why the Trump government urgently wanted to change the rules about who can become a citizen. Some courts had stopped these changes from happening in the whole country.

Orders that apply to the whole country have become a key way to control what Trump wants to do with the government. This has made President Trump and his supporters more and more annoyed.

Since January, when Trump started his second term, judges have made 40 orders that apply to the whole country, a lawyer named D. John Sauer said in court as arguments began. The arguments lasted over two hours.

The government wants the court to quickly deal with birthright citizenship and other immigration problems.

Someone could start a case like this and it could be dealt with fast, and maybe it could even be used in the whole country.

But when Justice Amy Coney Barrett and others asked questions, Sauer said the Trump administration might not support a lawsuit like that. They might even try to make it harder for groups of people to sue together.

It's not common for the Supreme Court to discuss urgent appeals. Usually, the judges focus on the main problem of the case.

The government didn't ask the court to decide the big question yet. If the court agrees with the government about rules that apply everywhere, we don't know how long different rules about citizenship will affect children born in the US.

We expect to decide by the end of June.