By Nate Raymond
CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday has again barred President Donald Trump‘s administration from enforcing his executive order limiting birthright citizenship nationwide after the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the ability of judges to block his policies using nationwide injunctions.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante in Concord, New Hampshire, made the ruling after immigrant rights advocates implored him to grant class action status to a lawsuit they filed seeking to represent any babies whose citizenship status would be threatened by implementation of Trump’s directive.
Laplante agreed the plaintiffs could proceed as a class, allowing him to issue a fresh judicial order blocking implementation of the Republican president’s policy nationally.
The question of whether to issue an injunction was “not a close call,” he said, noting children could be deprived of U.S. citizenship if Trump’s order took effect.
“That’s irreparable harm, citizenship alone,” he said. “It is the greatest privilege that exists in the world.”
The judge said he would stay his ruling for a few days to allow the Trump administration to appeal and would issue a written decision by the end of the day.
The ACLU and others filed the suit just hours after the Supreme Court on June 27 issued a 6-3 ruling, powered by its conservative majority, that narrowed three nationwide injunctions issued by judges in separate challenges to Trump’s directive. The suit was filed on behalf of non-U.S. citizens living in the United States whose babies might be affected.
Under the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump’s executive order would take effect on July 27.
Looking to seize upon an exception in the Supreme Court’s ruling, the lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the decision allows judges to continue to block Trump policies on a nationwide basis in class action lawsuits.
The three judges who issued nationwide injunctions found that Trump’s directive likely violates citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The amendment states that all “persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
The Justice Department has argued that Trump’s order conforms with the Constitution and has asked Laplante to find that the plaintiffs cannot sue as a class.
The Supreme Court’s ruling did not address the legal merits of Trump’s order, which the Republican president issued as part of his hardline immigration agenda on his first day back in office in January.
Trump’s order directs federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also known as a “green card” holder.
More than 150,000 newborns would be denied citizenship annually if it takes effect nationally, according to Democratic-led states and immigrant rights advocates who have challenged it.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Will Dunham and Deepa Babington)
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