Legal Battles Escalate Over Trump Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Wednesday appealed a nationwide injunction in a suit brought by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to redefine the right to birthright citizenship enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

The legal challenge now heads to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which covers appeals from district courts in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island.

The appeal comes as the executive order that Trump signed on Inauguration Day would take effect on Feb. 19, were it not for that injunction and others.

The executive order states that the federal government will not recognize or issue citizenship documentation to any child born as of Feb. 19 to parents who are in the country without proper authorization, or if one parent is in the United States on a temporary visa and the other parent is a noncitizen or green card holder.

The suit by 18 states charges that the executive order that Trump signed on his first day in office is an “unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands (of) American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”

States signed on to the suit include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia and the city and county of San Francisco are also enjoined in the suit.

Multiple suits, multiple injunctions

This is the fourth nationwide injunction against the Trump administration’s executive order pertaining to birthright citizenship, in addition to one from a district court in Washington state, one in New Hampshire and another in Maryland.

The Trump administration has also asked for a stay on the injunction granted by the court in Washington state.

Attorneys for the Trump administration’s Department of Justice have already appealed the injunction from the Maryland judge. The Trump administration also asked the district court in that case for a partial stay on the nationwide injunction to pertain only to the plaintiffs who could be affected — five pregnant patients who are all immigrants without legal status.

Maryland District Judge Deborah L. Boardman, who issued the nationwide injunction, denied the DOJ request for a partial stay on Tuesday. Boardman was nominated by former President Joe Biden.

“Were the Court to limit the injunction to the plaintiffs and the members of the plaintiff organizations, a person’s citizenship status during the pendency of this case would depend on their parents’ decision to bring this lawsuit or their parents’ membership in one of two voluntary, private organizations. That would make no sense,” Boardman wrote in the order. “Citizenship rules should be uniform and consistent across the country. Uniformity and consistency can be ensured only through a nationwide injunction.”

Judge skeptical of DOJ argument

Boardman added that lawyers for the Trump administration have not made a “strong showing that they are likely to succeed on their claim” that the district court was wrong in issuing a nationwide injunction for the executive order.

“The President certainly has the core authority to issue Executive Orders,” Boardman said. “But the President has no authority to issue an Executive Order that purports to rewrite the Constitution and that ignores 125 years of Supreme Court precedent.”

The appeal from the Maryland district court will be heard in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles appeals from the nine federal district courts in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Last updated 1:19 p.m., Feb. 19, 2025

by Ariana Figueroa, Virginia Mercury

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