Court blocks Trump's new attempt to restrict birthright citizenship
A federal court in the US has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's new attempt to narrow the right to American citizenship by birth. The judge concluded that the administration's new order likely violates the Constitution and is inconsistent with the US Supreme Court decision issued in June.
This is reported by CBS News and the legal news outlet Law360.
The preliminary injunction was issued on September 2 by federal judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland. She prohibited applying Trump's new order to members of the certified class of plaintiffs while the court considers the case on the merits.
This concerns the order Trump signed on August 6 after the US Supreme Court blocked his previous attempt to significantly restrict the principle of birthright citizenship.
The new document provides that federal agencies should not recognize the citizenship of certain children born in the US if neither parent is an American citizen.
Among such categories, the administration named children of persons classified by authorities as "enemy aliens," employees of foreign governments, and cases where parents, in the authorities' opinion, carried out a commercial transaction to obtain American citizenship for the child. The latter category is particularly aimed against so-called birth tourism.
In a separate order, Trump also instructed the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen the fight against foreigners who enter the US on nonimmigrant visas specifically to give birth to a child.
Judge Boardman stated that the Supreme Court has already determined the right of children in the plaintiff class to citizenship from birth. In her opinion, the White House's new attempt cannot circumvent that decision.
As Law360 notes, the court ruled that the latest Trump order cannot be applied to the relevant group of children because the Supreme Court's decision remains binding on lower courts and the executive branch.
The lawsuit was filed by several immigrants together with the human rights organizations CASA and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. They argued that the White House seeks to overly expand the historically narrow exceptions to the principle of birthright citizenship.
Representatives of the Trump administration, on the contrary, argued that the previous Supreme Court decision does not mean automatic recognition as citizens of absolutely all children of foreigners born on American territory, and allows certain exceptions.
This is Trump's second attempt after returning to the White House to limit the application of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, according to which citizenship is granted to persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to their jurisdiction.
On June 30, the US Supreme Court rejected the president's first order, which was to deprive automatic citizenship of children born in the country to parents who are in the US illegally or temporarily. After that, the White House tried to narrow the scope of restrictions and issued new orders in August.
The current decision is preliminary and does not end the litigation. The court must separately consider the claim on the merits, and the administration can appeal the injunction in higher instances.
Based on materials from: CBS News, Law360, White House
