US Judge Declines to Block Trump's New Birthright Citizenship Order

A U.S. federal judge on Friday declined, for now, to issue a temporary injunction against President Donald Trump's second executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The decision marks one of the first legal challenges to the new executive order, signed by Trump on August 6, after earlier attempts to restrict the right were struck down by the Supreme Court.

District Judge Deborah Boardman, appointed under former President Joe Biden, declined to immediately grant a preliminary injunction, though she expressed concerns about Trump's new order. "As far as I know, this is unprecedented," Boardman said of the order.

Boardman required the plaintiffs—a coalition of immigrant families and advocacy groups—to directly address the latest executive order in their lawsuit, which continues an ongoing legal battle over birthright citizenship. She also said she would schedule a review of the injunction request after the amended complaint is filed.

Earlier, in 2025, Boardman was among the judges who granted preliminary injunctions blocking Trump's first birthright citizenship order, declaring it unlawful.

Constitutional Right

Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing that most children born on U.S. soil receive citizenship regardless of their parents' nationality or immigration status. The amendment, passed in 1868 after the Civil War, was intended to ensure that formerly enslaved people could not be denied citizenship.

In the 19th-century case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court ruled that a U.S.-born person of Chinese immigrant parents in San Francisco could not be denied citizenship. The 14th Amendment states: "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." Only limited exceptions apply, including children of diplomats or occupying military forces.

However, Trump has argued that children of undocumented or temporary immigrants are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States and thus should not receive birthright citizenship. On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, he signed an order barring government agencies from issuing citizenship documents to children whose parents are "present unlawfully" or "lawfully but temporarily." That order reversed years of legal precedent and was challenged in court almost immediately.

On June 30, the Supreme Court struck down Trump's 2025 order by a 6-3 vote, ruling it unconstitutional.

Second Order Issued

Trump responded by signing a second executive order on birthright citizenship on August 6. The scope of the new order is narrower. It seeks to deny citizenship to children born to non-citizen parents if those parents are deemed "alien enemies" or "terrorists." Children of parents who "engage in commerce" to access birthright citizenship or ensure a pregnant mother arrives in the U.S. to give birth would also be denied citizenship. Additionally, children of people from U.S. territories where citizenship is not governed by federal law—specifically American Samoa—would be ineligible.

Trump hailed the second order as a measure to protect against "risks posed by malicious foreign actors seeking to defraud American citizens by exploiting our nation's generosity." Critics, however, condemned it as another attempt to strip immigrant children of a fundamental civil right.

A coalition of immigrant families and human rights groups—including We Are CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project—has vowed to fight the new order, just as they did the first. "The Court's entry of an injunction preventing Defendants from stripping class members of citizenship is wholly within its authority, no matter how many times the President—who lacks the power to alter birthright citizenship law—issues an order," the coalition's lawyers wrote in an August 24 memorandum seeking an injunction.

"Deciding who is a U.S.-born citizen is not the business of the executive branch." The memorandum also argued that "amending the complaint is not necessary before the Court can issue further emergency relief," because the principle behind the lawsuit remains the same: a President cannot deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil. "They are entitled to recognition of their citizenship by the executive branch, no matter how many overlapping orders the President issues in an attempt to override the Constitution." The case is expected to proceed with an amended complaint and a new injunction request.