UPDATE (Feb. 10, 2025, 10:22 a.m. ET): On Monday, a third federal judge ruled against Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee in New Hampshire, issued a preliminary injunction that said, among other things, that blocking the government from enforcing the order while litigation against it continues is in the public interest.
UPDATE (Feb. 6, 2025, 2:24 p.m. ET): On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, in Washington state, likewise issued a preliminary injunction, writing that the Trump administration’s position on birthright citizenship is “unavailing and untenable” and calling birthright citizenship “an unequivocal Constitutional right” that the president can’t change with an executive order.
A federal judge in Maryland blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to curb birthright citizenship, finding at this preliminary stage in the litigation that the president’s order is likely unconstitutional. Trump’s move was already blocked by a restraining order from a federal judge in Washington state, with the issue being one of many generated by the new administration that are seemingly destined for a Supreme Court resolution.
NBC News reported Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland said Trump’s order “conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, contradicts 125-year-old binding Supreme Court precedent, and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.”
“No court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation,” the Biden appointee said, according to NBC News. “This court will not be the first.”
The 14th Amendment says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Supreme Court precedent going back more than a century has said that a person is a U.S. citizen if they’re born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents. Last month, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee in Washington state, issued the restraining order while calling Trump’s executive action “blatantly unconstitutional.” There’s a hearing set for Thursday in that case that could lead to further extending the block. Either way, that case, like the Maryland case, is moving closer toward a possible appeal by the losing party. Whether it’s in the case from Maryland, Washington state or any others, the Supreme Court could have the last word. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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