The 2025 Country Music Association Awards are almost here: How to watch

NEW YORK (AP) — Excuse me, you look like you like... country award shows. And you're in luck: The 2025 Country Music Association Awards are here. So, what should you expect?

Probably a lot of women taking home prizes they deserve! Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson lead this year's nominations with six nods each.

There's a lot of stiff competition: Wilson, who is hosting the ceremony, is also competing for the night’s highest honor — CMA entertainer of the year — against Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen, last year’s winner in the category.

That's not all: The nominees for new artist of the year are Langley, Shaboozey, Zach Top, Tucker Wetmore and Stephen Wilson Jr.

And the legendary Vince Gill will be presented with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shaboozey, Combs, Stapleton, Langley, Moroney, Top, Wetmore, Wilson and Wilson. Jr will all perform, as well as Kelsea Ballerini, Brandi Carlile, Kenny Chesney, Riley Green, Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, Old Dominion, The Red Clay Strays and the rapper BigXThaPlug.

The 59th annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena at 8 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Central on ABC. It will become available to stream the next day on Hulu.

The prizes are nominated and voted on by members of the Country Music Association, which includes music executives, artists, publicists, songwriters and other industry professionals.

Vince Gill accepts the lifetime achievement award during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. George Strait looks on from right.(AP Photo/George Walker IV)

BigXthaPlug, left, and Luke Combs perform "Pray Hard during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Chris Stapleton, left, and Miranda Lambert perform "A Song To Sing" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ella Langley performs "Choosin' Texas" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Lainey Wilson, center, performs "Ring Finger" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Kelsea Ballerini performs "I Sit In Parks" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Megan Moroney, center, performs "6 Months Later during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Stephen Wilson Jr. performs "Stand By Me" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Zach Top receives the award for new artist of the yearTucker Wetmore receives the award for new artist of the year during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Chris Stapleton performs "Bad As I Used To Be" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ella Langley, left, and Riley Green accept the award for song of the year for "You Look Like You Love Me" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Zach Top performs "Guitar" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Host Lainey Wilson speaks during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Luke Combs performs "Back in the Saddle" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Host Lainey Wilson, left, and Keith Urban perform during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Will Bundy, from left, Ella Langley and Riley Green receive the award for single of the year for "you look like you love me" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Geoff Sprung, Matthew Ramsey, Brad Tursi, Trevor Rosen of Old Dominion arrive at the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Megan Moroney, left, and Kenny Chesney arrive at the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Lainey Wilson arrives at the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

FILE - Vince Gill appears at 2023 CMA Fest in Nashville, Tenn., on June 8, 2023. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

This combination of photos shows Ella Langley performing in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 28, 2024, left, Megan Moroney performing in New York on Dec. 31, 2024, center, and Lainey Wilson performing in Nashville, Tenn., on June 9, 2023. (AP Photo)

FILE - Signage for the 51st annual CMA Awards appears at the Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 8, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Lainey Wilson arrives at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, Sept. 14, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments at 10 a.m. ET over the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to someone in the country illegally or temporarily.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, is part of his Republican administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Trump plans to be in attendance. He will be the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.

Every lower court to have considered the issue has found the order illegal and prevented it from taking effect. A definitive ruling by the nation’s highest court is expected by early summer.

Here’s the latest:

Way back in 1841, former President John Quincy Adams represented a shipload of African men and women who had been sold into slavery in the famous Amistad case.

Former President William Howard Taft became chief justice nearly eight years after leaving the White House in 1913. Charles Evans Hughes left the Supreme Court for a presidential run in 1912, which he nearly won, then returned to the court in 1930 as chief justice.

In 1966, Richard Nixon argued his only Supreme Court case, which he lost.

Twenty-four Democratic state attorneys general put out a statement Wednesday morning saying they’re “proud to lead the fight against this unlawful order.”

While Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration scores of times, the plaintiffs in this case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups.

The Democratic attorneys filed court papers supporting their position. Twenty-five of their Republican counterparts filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Trump administration.

The only state sitting this one out is New Hampshire.

More than 250,000 babies born in the U.S. each year would not be citizens, according to research from the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

The order would only apply going forward, the administration has said. But opponents have said a court ruling in Trump’s favor could pave the way for a later effort to take away citizenship from people who were born to parents who were not themselves U.S. citizens.

The president and first lady Melania Trump showed up for the court ritual marking the arrival of a new justice following the confirmations of Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Justice Brett Kavanaugh a year later.

The ceremony for Trump’s third appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump, who was no longer in office, did not attend.

Traditionally the president has avoided attending arguments to maintain distance between the government branches — since the executive officer’s presence is seen by many as a way to pressure the independent court to rule in their favor.

Given the unusual nature of it all — Trump’s presence in the courtroom spotlights how high the stakes are for him, as the court’s decision will have massive consequences on his longstanding promise to crack down on immigration.

Last year, Trump said that he badly wanted to attend a hearing on whether he overstepped federal law with his sweeping tariffs, but he decided against it, saying it would have been a distraction.

Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA, told the The Associated Press that Trump’s attending SCOTUS oral arguments signals how important the president views this case.

However, Trump’s presence “is unlikely to sway the justices,” Winkler said, adding that the SCOTUS justices “pride themselves in their independence, even if some agree with much of Trump’s agenda.”

The fanfare of Trump being in the courtroom will make for a different experience for the justices themselves, however, as “Trump’s presence will make the atmosphere a little bit more circus-like,” Winkler said.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer is making his ninth Supreme Court argument and second in as many weeks. Sauer’s biggest win to date was the presidential immunity decision that spared Trump from being tried for his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Sauer was a Supreme Court law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia early in his legal career.

ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang, the child of Chinese immigrants, is presenting her second argument to the Supreme Court. In the first Trump administration, a 5-4 conservative majority ruled against Wang’s clients in another immigration case.

It’s not an April Fool’s joke. Alito was born this day in 1950. Only Thomas, who turns 78 in June, is older than Alito among the nine justices.

In the post-pandemic era, the other justices allow the 77-year-old Thomas, the longest-serving member of the court, to pose a question or two before the free-for-all begins.

In a second round of questioning, the justices ask questions in order of seniority. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose center chair makes him the most senior, gets the first crack.

The justices have routinely gone beyond the allotted time since returning to the courtroom following the Covid-19 pandemic.

A buzzer and the court marshal’s cry, “All rise,” signal the justices’ entrance from behind red curtains. The livestream won’t kick in for several minutes, until after the ceremonial swearing-in of lawyers to the Supreme Court bar.

FILE - The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

People arrive to walk inside the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. The Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments today on whether President Donald Trump can deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)