A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday turned down a request for a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the Trump administration’s from send test messages to more than 200 million cellphones later in the day.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected arguments from lawyers representing people who objected because they believed that the government should not be able to control what messages Americans receive on their devices.

At a news conference outside the courthouse after the decision, plaintiff Liane Nikitivich said she was “not sure how terrorism is defined and who will be found to be a terrorist” by the government.

“Will terrorism be women marching in the streets? Teachers protesting? I don’t know,” she said.

She also said they want the right to have their children’s cell phones excluded from the system.

“For our children it may be frightening to them,” she said.

Plaintiff Kristine Rakowsky rejected the government’s recommendation that they just turn off their phones as they would their TVs if they don’t want the alerts.

She said she needs her phone on because she’s a caretaker for a 4-year-old and her elderly father.

“I need to have my phone on and I should be able to have my phone on anytime without receiving these alerts,” she said.

The test was of a previously unused presidential alert system that aims to warn the public in the event of a national emergency.

The test message was originally scheduled for September but was pushed back to Wednesday and appeared on people’s phones at 2:18 p.m. New York time.

The message, sent by FEMA, read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” A separate alert on TV and radios was issued at 2:20 p.m.

The tests have drawn a lot of attention on social media in part because of President Trump’s propensity for sending tweets to his 55 million followers.

On a conference call, government officials told reporters that Trump would not personally trigger the alert — from his phone or any other device — and emphasized that no president could “wake up one morning and attempt to send a personal message.”

The test alert was sent by a device similar to a laptop from a FEMA laboratory.

An actual alert would be used for an impending missile attack or other national emergency.

Federal Communications Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told reporters on Tuesday that an April 5 regional test of the emergency alert system in the Washington area showed some potential issues.

He said some people did not receive alerts on some devices during that test. “We’re trying to analyze that,” O’Rielly said.

The country’s wireless emergency alert system has issued over 36,000 alerts for situations such as missing children, extreme weather and natural disasters since 2012, but never a presidential directive.

Cellphone users can opt out of natural disaster or missing children alerts, but not presidential alerts.

Verizon Communications said nearly all of its mobile phone handsets are capable of getting alerts.

Government officials estimated that the alert would reach upwards of 225 million US cellphones, or around 75 percent of all phones. They said a person on a call lasting 30 minutes may not get the alert as with phones with an active data connection.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner with Reuters