A second court ruled that President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship still cannot go into effect anywhere in the country following the Supreme Court’s recent decision that claws back nationwide injunctions.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Wednesday that four Democratic-led states were entitled to a nationwide injunction, because any narrower block would fail to provide them complete relief.
“States’ residents may give birth in a non-party state, and individuals subject to the Executive Order from non-party states will inevitably move to the States,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald Gould.
Gould’s decision was joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Hawkins,who like Gould was appointed by former President Clinton.
U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented, saying the states had no legal right to bring the case.
“Courts must be vigilant in enforcing the limits of our jurisdiction and our power to order relief,” Bumatay wrote.
“Otherwise, we risk entangling ourselves in contentious issues not properly before us and overstepping our bounds,” he continued. “No matter how significant the question or how high the stakes of the case—at all times, we must adhere to the confines of ‘the judicial Power.’”
The ruling comes after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision late last month, curtailed the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions that go beyond the parties suing to block the president’s policies for anyone in the country.
But the high court preserved pathways for plaintiffs to still receive nationwide relief in certain circumstances. Individuals can file class-action lawsuits, and states may still receive a universal injunction if it is needed to afford them complete relief, the justices noted.
Plaintiffs have since pursued both pathways to block Trump’s order, which would deny citizenship to anyone born in the country if they don’t have at least one parent with permanent legal status. Every court to opine on the legality of it so far has found it to be unconstitutional.
Wednesday’s ruling is the second time Trump’s order has been blocked nationwide following the Supreme Court’s decision. A federal judge in New Hampshire agreed to the American Civil Liberties Union’s request to certify a nationwide class of unborn children and indefinitely block the administration from enforcing Trump’s birthright citizenship order against them.
The 9th Circuit heard a case brought by Democratic attorneys general in Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon. The panel majority said Wednesday that only blocking Trump’s order in some parts of the country would continue to burden the four states.
“To account for this, the States would need to overhaul their eligibility-verification systems for Medicaid, CHIP, and Title IV-E. For that reason, the States would suffer the same irreparable harms under a geographically-limited injunction as they would without an injunction,” Gould wrote.
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