A federal judge on Friday issued a ruling blocking President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, marking the third such ruling since the Supreme Court’s recent decision curbing the use of nationwide injunctions.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, appointed by President Obama, halted Trump’s order on a nationwide basis. This decision follows similar rulings by another district court and a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all opposing Trump’s policy.
Despite the Supreme Court’s June ruling limiting the authority of lower courts to impose nationwide injunctions, Sorokin determined that the injunction already in place—covering more than a dozen states—remains valid under an exception to that decision.
According to the AP, “A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June.”
The states involved in the legal challenge argue that Trump’s policy is unconstitutional and would jeopardize millions in funding tied to citizenship-based eligibility for public services. The matter is expected to return swiftly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Trump’s executive order asserts that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted by the left to extend citizenship to so-called “anchor babies.”
“It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” the order stated.
Trump’s order further contended that the 14th Amendment has never been intended to provide birthright citizenship to children born to those in the country unlawfully.
“[The] Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that ‘a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text,” the order stated.
