On Thursday, the Supreme Court appeared likely to keep stopping President Trump's rules about who can become a citizen, while also trying to limit the power of nationwide court orders.

The court wasn't sure what would happen if they made that decision. Most of them were worried if the Trump government could stop children from becoming citizens, even for a short time, if their parents were in the US without permission.

The judges listened to reasons about the Trump government's urgent requests. These requests were about court orders that stopped the new rules about citizenship from starting in the whole country.

Nationwide court orders have become a key way to control Trump's attempts to change the government, and they are making the Republican president and his supporters increasingly annoyed.

Since January, when Trump started his second term, judges have made 40 orders that affect the whole country, a lawyer named D. John Sauer told the court at the beginning of a long discussion.

The government wants the court to quickly deal with some immigration issues, including whether people born in the country are automatically citizens.

Someone could start a case like this and it could be dealt with fast, and it might 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 such a lawsuit. They might even try to make it take longer for many people to join the lawsuit.

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

The government didn't ask the court to decide the big question yet. If the court agrees with the government about stopping rules that affect the whole country, we don't know how long different rules about who is a citizen will affect children born in the US.

We think they will decide by the end of June.