Judge blocks Trump's birthright order nationwide in 4th such ruling since Supreme Court decision

GREENBELT, Maryland: A federal judge in Maryland late Thursday ruled President Donald Trump's administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily.

It was the fourth court decision blocking the president's birthright citizenship order nationwide since a key US Supreme Court ruling in June.

US District Judge Deborah Boardman's preliminary injunction was expected after the judge said last month she would issue such an order if the case were returned to her by an appeals court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to her later in July.

Since June, two other district courts, as well as an appellate panel of judges, have also blocked the birthright order nationwide.

An email to the White House for comment was not immediately returned.

Trump’s January order would deny citizenship to children born to parents living in the US illegally or temporarily.

Boardman in February issued a preliminary injunction blocking it nationwide. But the June ruling by the US Supreme Court upended that decision and other court rulings blocking the order across the nation.

The justices ruled that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.

In her ruling Thursday, Boardman certified a class of all children who have been born or will be born in the United States after February 19, 2025, who would be affected by Trump's order.

She said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit before her were “extremely likely” to win their argument that the birthright order violates the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to US jurisdiction, are citizens.

They were also likely to suffer irreparable harm if the order went into effect, she wrote.

Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship specifies conditions for those who would not automatically receive US citizenship if born in the country.

Here’s what that order (Executive Order 14160, titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship") stipulates:

The order attempts to redefine birthright citizenship, stating that US citizenship should not automatically apply to individuals born on US soil if:

These restrictions were designed to apply only to persons born 30 days or more after the order's effective date — meaning children born on or after February 19, 2025 — had the order not been legally blocked.