Washington (CNN) With Brett Kavanaugh on the bench, the Justice Department signaled on Wednesday that it wants to expedite lawsuits concerning Trump administration positions through the lower courts in order to get them before the Supreme Court's newly formed five-justice conservative majority.

The latest example came in a letter from to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals warning if there wasn't a decision soon on the administration's planned phase out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program -- the Obama-era program that protects young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation -- the Justice Department would go directly to the Supreme Court.

A district court judge temporarily blocked the administration from unwinding the program pending the resolution of the litigation. The 9th Circuit heard arguments May but has yet to issue an opinion.

Although the Trump administration announced plans to phase out the program last September, judges in different districts across the country have temporarily blocked the government from doing so and ordered that renewals under the program should continue while the cases play out in court.

At issue is not the legality of the program but how the government chose to wind it down. Supporters of the roughly 700,000 "Dreamers" who could be impacted say the administration's actions were arbitrary and in violation of federal law.

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