A judge in Seattle on Thursday, January 23, 2025, blocked United States President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the U.S., calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which Trump signed on Monday during his first day on office.
Trump in his executive order directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.
“I am having trouble understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this order is constitutional,” the judge told a U.S. Justice Department lawyer defending Trump’s order.
“It just boggles my mind,” Coughenour added.
The states – Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon – argued that Trump’s order violated the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” the judge said.
Before Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate had even finished talking, Coughenour said he had signed a temporary restraining order sought by Democratic state attorneys general from the states, Reuters reported.
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“Under this order, babies being born today don’t count as U.S. citizens,” Washington Assistant Attorney General Lane Polozola argued in a packed courtroom.
Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan, issued a temporary restraining order that blocked Trump’s order from being enforcement nationwide for 14 days while he weighs whether to issue a preliminary injunction.
Under Trump’s order, any children born after February 19 whose mothers or fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents would be subject to deportation and would be prevented from obtaining Social Security numbers, various government benefits and the ability as they get older to work lawfully.
More than 150,000 newborn children would be denied citizenship annually if Trump’s order is allowed to stand, according to the Democratic-led states.
Several other lawsuits are also pending nationwide by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Democratic state attorneys general have said that the understanding of the Constitution’s citizenship clause was cemented 127 years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship.
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