Story highlights The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to reverse a lower court ruling and allow the president's controversial immigration programs, meant to ease deportation threats to millions of undocumented immigrants, go into effect

Administration wants case heard before the next election

Washington (CNN) The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to reverse a lower court ruling and allow the president's controversial immigration programs, meant to ease deportation threats to millions of undocumented immigrants, go into effect.

And the administration wants the case heard quickly -- before the 2016 presidential election.

"A divided court of appeals has upheld an unprecedented nationwide injunction against implementing a federal immigration enforcement policy of great national importance, and has done so in violation of established limits on the judicial power," Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. wrote in court briefs filed Friday. "If left undisturbed, that ruling will allow States to frustrate the federal government's enforcement of the nation's immigration laws."

The brief represents the administration's last real hope of getting a court to green light the programs before the next election. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court and said that the administration lacked the authority to implement the programs, blocking them from going into effect.

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