A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship for any children whose citizenship status would be at risk if the order went into effect.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, an appointee of George W. Bush, agreed to grant class action status to a lawsuit challenging the order. It means that children beyond the plaintiffs are protected by the preliminary injunction.
Laplante’s ruling has the same practical effect as a nationwide injunction, as it applies to babies anywhere in the country. The class does not include parents, as sought by the plaintiffs.
The judge described his decision to issue a preliminary injunction as “not a close call,” suggesting that the deprivation of U.S. citizenship clearly qualifies as irreparable harm.
Laplante’s decision comes after the Supreme Court curtailed judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions against Trump’s policies but left open a door for challengers to try to seek broad relief by filing class action lawsuits.
He said he would stay the ruling for seven days so the Trump administration can appeal.
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents and their infants by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others, was filed hours after the justices last month ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that nationwide injunctions likely exceed federal courts’ powers, cutting back a tool judges have used to block Trump’s far-reaching second-term agenda.
Three judges had issued nationwide injunctions barring Trump’s order from taking effect. Once those injunctions were limited, legal challengers rushed back to court to try to block the directive.
The executive order is set to go into effect July 27 under the high court’s decision.
Signed on Trump’s first day back in the White House, the order curbs birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil if at least one of their parents does not have permanent legal status.
It upended the conventional understanding of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which has long been considered to have few exceptions. The Justice Department has argued prior misinterpretation of the clause incentivized illegal immigration.
“This ruling is a huge victory and will help protect the citizenship of all children born in the United States, as the Constitution intended,” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the case, said in a statement.
“We are fighting to ensure President Trump doesn’t trample on the citizenship rights of one single child,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed.
Updated at 12:02 p.m. EDT
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