On August 13, District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's new executive order, signed August 6, which sought to limit birthright citizenship. The ruling follows the Supreme Court's June decision that Trump's initial attempt to abolish this right was unconstitutional.
The new order targets what Trump calls "birth tourism"—the deliberate act of having children on U.S. soil. It seeks to deny citizenship to children of foreigners in certain categories, including those accused of engaging in commercial transactions to obtain citizenship or those classified as "alien enemies."
In her August 13 ruling, Judge Boardman stated that the order is "almost certainly unconstitutional" as applied to the certified class of plaintiffs, noting that the Supreme Court in Barbara v. Trump determined that children in this group are citizens from birth. She wrote: "This Court must again intervene to temporarily block the President's latest attempt to strip them of their citizenship."
In Barbara, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 that birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This right automatically grants citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, with rare exceptions such as children of diplomats or invading armies.
The constitutional basis for birthright citizenship has been affirmed through numerous Supreme Court rulings over the years, most notably in the case of Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese-American citizen. However, Trump had pledged during his second-term campaign to tighten immigration, including reforming the concept of birthright citizenship. He and his allies argue that children of temporary or undocumented immigrants do not qualify because they are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States.
After the Supreme Court defeat in June, Trump and his allies continued to seek challenges to constitutional protections for birthright citizenship. The latest lawsuit was filed by immigrant rights activists and families, including groups like the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.
Previously, they secured an injunction from Judge Boardman last year, preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the first executive order on this matter. Last week, Boardman asked plaintiffs to amend their complaint to focus on the second order rather than relying on the content of the first, while expressing doubts about the constitutionality of the new effort, calling it "unprecedented."
