Trump birthright citizenship order blocked in third ruling since US Supreme Court decision
The US president is seeking to deny American citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the US illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower court judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
The states have argued Trump’s birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for health insurance services that are contingent on citizenship status. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who helped lead the lawsuit before Sorokin, said in a statement he was “thrilled the district court again barred President Trump’s flagrantly unconstitutional birthright citizenship order from taking effect anywhere”.
“American-born babies are American, just as they have been at every other time in our nation’s history,” he added. “The president cannot change that legal rule with the stroke of a pen.”
Lawyers for the government had argued Sorokin should narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, saying it should be “tailored to the states’ purported financial injuries”.