Supreme Court hears challenge to Trump's birthright citizenship order in major case

Any decision from the 6-3 conservative majority could have sweeping implications for Trump's presidency as his lawyers spar against an onslaught of lawsuits in federal courts nationwide. 

The Supreme Court arguments are focusing on lower court judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state who issued "universal" injunctions against Trump's birthright citizenship executive order earlier this year. 

Rather, justices are expected to use the oral arguments to weigh the authority of lower courts to issue nationwide, or "universal" injunctions blocking presidential policies - teeing up a high-stakes showdown that pits Trump's Article II powers against Article III courts.

While Trump allies accuse these judges of political bias and overreach, others critical of the administration say the courts have not gone far enough to rein in Trump's attempts to expand the executive branch's powers. 

"The second Trump administration has taken the guardrails off of the norms that historically governed the rule of law, and is undertaking steps to enhance the perceived power of the executive branch to the detriment of the two other co-equal branches," Mark Zaid, a D.C.-based attorney who has sued Trump in several high-profile cases, told Fox News Digitial in an interview to mark his first 100 days in office. 

Justices on the Supreme Court will consider a trio of consolidated cases involving nationwide injunctions handed down by federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state that blocked Trump's ban on birthright citizenship from taking force.

But the policy remains widely unpopular. More than 22 U.S. states and immigrants' rights groups have sued the Trump administration to block the change to birthright citizenship, arguing in court filings that the executive order is both unconstitutional and "unprecedented."

And to date, no court has sided with the Trump administration's executive order seeking to ban birthright citizenship, though multiple district courts have blocked it from taking effect.