On Thursday, the Supreme Court appeared likely to keep blocking President Trump's rules about who can become a citizen at birth, while also trying to find a way to limit the impact of court orders across the country.

It wasn't clear what this decision would be, but most of the court worried about what would happen if the Trump 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 wanted to quickly change the rules about who can become a citizen. Some courts had said these changes couldn't happen yet, and the government was asking the judges to let them go ahead.

Orders that stop laws across the country have become a key way to control Trump's plans to change the government. This has made the Republican president 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 told the court as arguments began. The arguments lasted over two hours.

The government wants the court to quickly deal with some problems, including birthright citizenship, which are related to immigration.

Someone could quickly start a case like this, and it might even work in the whole country.

But when Justice Amy Coney Barrett and others asked questions, Sauer said that the Trump administration might not agree with the lawsuit, or could try to make the class actions happen more slowly.

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

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

They will probably decide by the end of June.