Posted on January 26, 2025

Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Banning Birthright Citizenship Despite Most Americans Backing the Move

Geoff Earle, Daily Mail, January 23, 2025

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump´s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship – calling it ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’

Trump inked the order on his first day in office, declaring it would apply regardless of the parents´ immigration status.

The order came despite a Supreme Court precedent that is more than 100 years old that kept birthright citizenship in place. It was his first executive actions to draw a legal challenge, without outside groups and multiple states signing onto the case.

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, issued the ruling despite a 48 percent plurality of respondents saying they support its removal and 26 percent said they supported it strongly, according to a poll conducted by J.L. Partners for DailyMail.com.

By contrast, 32 percent said they opposed it, 23 percent strongly.

The federal judge ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship.

The delay will put the order on ice until the judge can hear oral argument. But the 84-year-old made his first impression clear, granting a motion assuming the likelihood that plaintiffs will prevail.

‘I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the case presented is as clear as it is here …This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,’ he said.

Washington State AG Nick Brown and top law enforcement officers of other Democratic-run states had sought the 14-day stay.

The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. {snip}

Signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, the order is slated to take effect on Feb. 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle.

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The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship – the principle of jus soli or ‘right of the soil’ – is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.

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Trump’s order asserts that the children of noncitizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and orders federal agencies to not recognize citizenship for children who don’t have at least one parent who is a citizen.

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