The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to allow it to block federal teacher preparation grants that lower courts have ordered resumed.

It is the latest instance of the administration urging the justices to rein in federal district judges that have blocked aspects of President Trump’s sweeping agenda. 

“This Court should put a swift end to federal district courts’ unconstitutional reign as self-appointed managers of Executive Branch funding and grant-disbursement decisions,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the application.

The emergency appeal comes after lower courts agreed to a request from eight Democratic state attorneys general to resume grant disbursements under the Teacher Quality Partnership Program and the Supporting Effective Educator Development Program in their states.

Both programs support teacher development. The Trump administration sought to cut off the funds last month amid a broader effort to shutter the Education Department, but the states contend that applicable regulations don’t allow the Trump administration to stop the funding.

The Justice Department has warned that, if the lower rulings stand, it will force the federal government to immediately pay out $65 million to the eight states that can’t be recovered if their legal challenge ultimately fails. 

“The aim is clear: to stop the Executive Branch in its tracks and prevent the Administration from changing direction on hundreds of billions of dollars of government largesse that the Executive Branch considers contrary to the United States’ interests and fiscal health,” the application reads. 

By default, the request goes to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, former President Biden’s sole appointee to the court who handles emergency appeals arising from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Jackson set a Friday afternoon deadline for the Democratic-led states to respond to the Trump administration’s request. She could then rule on the application alone or refer it to the full court for a vote. 

It is one of two challenges to the Trump administration’s freeze of teacher preparation grants. A separate lawsuit filed by private education groups, which also seeks to resume a third grant program, remains in the lower courts. 

The case also marks the third pending emergency appeal at the Supreme Court brought by the Trump administration.

The administration has also asked the justices to narrow a series of nationwide blocks on Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship and to lift another judge’s order to reinstate more than 16,000 federal probationary employees.

The court has already declined two previous emergency applications from the administration. In a 5-4 decision, the justices refused to allow the administration to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments earlier this month, and earlier, they punted a demand to greenlight Trump’s firing of an independent agency leader until the case became moot.