The Supreme Court is going to take up a major case involving a signature Obama legacy item

The Supreme Court is going to weigh in on President Barack Obama's sweeping executive actions on immigration.

The high court announced Tuesday that it will hear a case brought by Texas and co-signed by 25 states on the administration's programs to shield millions of immigrants living in the US without permission from deportation, and allow many to qualify for legal work status.

If the court rules the Obama administration's favor, it could temporarily open up the window for the implementation of several major immigration programs that have not been on hold since Texas sued the Obama administration.

Those programs include the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program and expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The programs were announced by the Obama administration in 2014 as a temporary way to provide quasi-legal status for many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the US without permission. Obama's decision to take executive action came after former House Speaker John Boehner told the president that the House would not take up comprehensive immigration-reform legislation.

Immigration-reform advocates quickly praised the court's decision to hear the case.

"This is a promising step in the right direction to finally unfreeze the DAPA and DACA extended programs that will provide 5 million undocumented immigrants with the opportunity to apply for temporary deportation relief and work authorization," said Todd Schulte, the president of the immigrant-advocacy group FWD.us, in a statement.