President Donald Trump
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The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Tuesday upheld a nationwide preliminary injunction against a Trump administration executive order aimed at restricting birthright citizenship.
The court has found that the order likely violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, affirming the prohibition against its implementation or enforcement. The ruling follows a challenge brought by 18 states, led by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, arguing against the executive order's legality. The Trump administration had contested the states' standing to sue and sought to lift the injunction.
"Every court to consider Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship by executive order has found it to be flagrantly unconstitutional, and every appellate court has rejected DOJ's effort to put his Order back in place," said Platkin.
The contested executive order, issued January 20, sought to introduce exceptions to the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to individuals born on the US soil, irrespective of their parents' immigration status. The administration argued that this policy had been abused and misinterpreted. This legal challenge is one of several faced by the Trump administration's immigration policies, which also included proposals to detain deportees at Guantanamo Bay and halt the country's refugee resettlement program
A preliminary injunction was initially issued on February 13, prompted by concerns that the executive order could leave thousands of children born in the US each year without legal status. In its decision, the First Circuit Court of Appeals stated that the administration had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the order's lawfulness or refute the plaintiff states' standing. A similar decision was issued by the Fourth Circuit court at the end of February.
The states involved in the case include New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Delaware, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Vermont, and the City of San Francisco.