The Trump administration is pushing for the the U.S. Supreme Court to allow some restrictions on birthright citizenship even as legal battles continue over President Donald Trump’s orders to end what has long been seen as a constitutional promise.

Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington have issued nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship.

The Education Department announced the new investigations, one month after warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences.”

The U.S. Department of Education on Friday said its office for civil rights is investigating 45 universities, citing complaints that the schools engaged with a program that set eligibility based on race.

The department said Friday it had opened an investigation into UW-Madison and 44 other universities nationwide over alleged racial discrimination. The notifications came exactly a month after the department issued sweeping guidance threatening to pull funding from colleges that do not eliminate all considerations of race from policies and programs.

Under Trump’s directive the Department of Education laid off half its staff. The lawsuit argues Trump has no authority to make such drastic changes.

A coalition of Democratic-led states is challenging the Trump administration’s layoffs across the Education Department, saying it amounts to an illegal dismantling of an agency created by Congress

A new lawsuit from Democratic attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia alleges this week’s mass layoffs at the Department of Education are gutting the agency as a way to implement an unlawful plan by President Donald Trump to dismantle the department.

Trump said his administration has discussed key details with Ukraine regarding a final peace deal to end its war against Russia.

President Donald Trump expressed optimism that US negotiators could secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, even as Kyiv and Moscow launched fresh aerial attacks early Thursday.