Judge Issues Ruling Against Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Plan

Federal judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship order, calling it unconstitutional; lawsuits challenge immigration crackdown. [Image via Reuters]

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”.

US 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 the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day in office.

“This is [a] blatantly unconstitutional order,” the judge told a lawyer with the US Justice Department defending Trump’s order.

The order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it a flagrant violation of the US Constitution.

“Under this order, babies being born today don’t count as US citizens,” Washington Assistant Attorney General Lane Polozola told Senior US District Judge John Coughenour at the start of a hearing in Seattle.

Polozola — on behalf of Democratic state attorneys general from Washington state, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon — urged the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from carrying out this key element of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The challengers argue that Trump’s action violates the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

Also See: Trump’s Return: A New Era or More of the Same?

Trump in his executive order directed US agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father is a US citizen or legal permanent resident.

In a brief filed late on Wednesday, the US Justice Department called the order an “integral part” of the president’s efforts “to address this nation’s broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border”.

The lawsuit filed in Seattle has been progressing more quickly than the four other cases brought over the executive order. It has been assigned to Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former president Ronald Reagan.

The judge potentially could rule from the bench after hearing arguments, or he could wait to write a decision ahead of Trump’s order taking effect.

Under the 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.

Democratic state attorneys general have said that the understanding of the Constitution’s citizenship clause was cemented 127 years ago when the US Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship.

The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 following the Civil War and overturned the Supreme Court’s notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision that had declared that the Constitution’s protections did not apply to enslaved Black people.

But the Justice Department in its brief argued that the 14th Amendment had never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born in the country and that the Supreme Court’s 1898 ruling in United States v Wong Kim Ark concerned only children of permanent residents.

The Justice Department said the case by the four states also “flunks multiple threshold hurdles”. The department said that only individuals, not states, can pursue claims under the citizenship clause and that the states lack the necessary legal standing to sue over Trump’s order.

Thirty-six of Trump’s Republican allies in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday separately introduced legislation to restrict automatic citizenship to only children born to citizens or lawful permanent residents.

This news is sourced from The Express Tribune and is intended for informational purposes only.

News Desk

Your trusted source for insightful journalism. Stay informed with our compelling coverage of global affairs, business, technology, and more.

Recent

From The Periphery to the Center: What People at Our Margins Endure

The South Asia Times (SAT) hosted a national webinar titled “From the Periphery to the Center: What People at Our Margins Endure,” spotlighting how Pakistan’s border regions, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, face deep-rooted governance challenges, economic neglect, and communication voids. Experts called for shifting from a security-centric to an inclusion-driven policy model to rebuild trust, empower youth, and turn Pakistan’s peripheries into engines of national resilience.

Read More »

The Indian Muslim: Living Between Faith and Fear

In September 2025, a simple expression of faith became a crime. When a devotional social media trend, the ‘I Love Muhammad’ campaign, went viral, it was deliberately framed as a provocation by authorities. The state’s response was swift and brutal: mass arrests and punitive demolitions that turned a peaceful act of devotion into a national flashpoint, revealing a clear intent to police and punish Muslim identity itself.

Read More »
Pakistan’s Stability: A Silent Pillar of US Strategic Interests

Pakistan’s Stability: A Silent Pillar of US Strategic Interests

Long seen through a security lens, Pakistan is now redefining its role in US strategy, as a supplier of critical minerals, a connectivity hub between Central and South Asia, and a stabilizing force in a volatile region. Amid global competition with China and shifting energy dynamics, Washington increasingly views Pakistan’s stability not as a choice but as a strategic necessity anchoring its economic and geopolitical interests across Asia.

Read More »
The Nobel Peace Prize or War Prize? A History of Controversial Laureates.

The Nobel Peace Prize or War Prize? A History of Controversial Laureates

Far from being an impartial recognition of pacifism, the Nobel Peace Prize’s legacy is marred by controversial laureates whose actions have been linked to immense violence. The prize is not a universal arbiter of peace but a political instrument reflecting a Western-centric worldview, rewarding figures who align with its geopolitical interests, regardless of the blood on their hands.

Read More »