Federal Judge Deals Another Blow to Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order
The New York Times
The injunction issued Thursday by a judge in Seattle came a day after an injunction stemming from a lawsuit in Maryland.
For the second time this week, a federal judge has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction to block President Trump’s effort to end automatic citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants.
The decision, handed down on Thursday morning in Seattle, came a day after a judge in Maryland issued a nationwide injunction against President Trump’s executive order seeking to ban birthright citizenship.
The executive order is facing several legal challenges, and the injunction on Thursday, by Judge John C. Coughenour of the Western District of Washington, came in a case brought by four state attorneys general.
“The constitution is not something with which the government may play policy games,” Judge Coughenour said on Thursday. “If the government wants to change the exceptional American grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself.”
On Jan. 23, Judge Coughenour had issued a temporary restraining order, and he had scheduled the hearing for Thursday to consider a preliminary injunction to replace the temporary one, which was to expire after 14 days.
A hearing in another lawsuit challenging the order is scheduled for Friday in Massachusetts.
