As it pushes to implement a plan to end birthright citizenship, the Trump administration is counting on an argument about out-of-control federal judges to prove irresistible to some Supreme Court conservatives.

Donald Trump took the fight over his attempt to restrict automatic U.S. birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court on Thursday as the Republican president's administration asked the justices to narrow a judicial block imposed on this key element of his hardline approach toward immigration.

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