A federal judge appointed by President Joe Biden has issued a nationwide injunction against former President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, citing constitutional conflicts.
In a decisive legal move, U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman delivered a ruling that blocks former President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, a directive which had sought to deny citizenship documents to certain groups of children born in the United States. Boardman’s decision, announced Thursday, underscores the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment and contends with existing Supreme Court precedent.
Boardman’s ruling supports a class-action lawsuit filed by the immigration rights group, CASA. The judge determined that the plaintiffs presented a strong case for a class-wide preliminary injunction, arguing that the executive order’s contradiction of the Constitution justified this legal remedy. “The plaintiffs have established that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim,” Boardman elaborated in her opinion.
The injunction aims to prevent the irreparable harm of denying citizenship to the children affected by the executive order. Boardman noted that maintaining the current state of birthright citizenship aligns with public interest and equity considerations, emphasizing that the government’s position would not be adversely affected by upholding the status quo pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
This ruling marks the fourth instance of a federal judge imposing such an injunction on Trump’s executive order, following a Supreme Court ruling in June. Trump’s directive, unveiled at the start of his second term, had insisted that U.S. agencies refuse citizenship documentation to children born to unauthorized immigrants, or those without at least one parent being a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Initially, the executive order faced swift challenges from lower courts before progressing to the Supreme Court’s review. In May, the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision addressed the scope of lower courts’ authority to implement nationwide injunctions, rather than directly tackling the executive order’s validity. This prompted a wave of legal responses from various advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and CASA, who adjusted their legal approaches in line with the Court’s guidance on seeking class-action lawsuits.
According to The Washington Post, these developments signal ongoing judicial resistance to changes proposed under the Trump administration concerning citizenship rights.