BS BULLETIN:
- A federal judge in Maryland blocked President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling his new executive order is “almost certainly unconstitutional” as applied to the class of children covered by the lawsuit.
- Trump’s August order was narrower than his first attempt, targeting categories including children whose parents allegedly engaged in “birth tourism” transactions, certain foreign government employees and people classified as “alien enemies.”
- U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said the Supreme Court already settled the central issue in June, when it ruled that children in the class challenging Trump’s original order are citizens at birth.
President Donald Trump tried another route around birthright citizenship.
A federal judge just put up another roadblock.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against Trump’s latest executive order seeking to narrow who automatically receives U.S. citizenship at birth.
“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Boardman wrote, pointing to the high court’s June decision striking down Trump’s earlier and broader attempt to restrict birthright citizenship.
“The 2026 Executive Order is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class,” she wrote, because the Supreme Court had already determined that the children involved “are citizens at birth.”
Trump issued the new order Aug. 6 after losing at the Supreme Court.
Unlike his original directive, the new version attempted to carve out specific categories of children whose parents are not U.S. citizens.
Among them are children whose parents are classified as “alien enemies,” including members of designated foreign terrorist organizations; certain foreign government employees; and parents accused of participating in commercial arrangements intended to obtain birthright citizenship.
The order also targets what the administration calls “birth tourism,” including situations in which parents allegedly arrange for a mother to be in the United States specifically to give birth.
The Justice Department argued that the new order was substantially narrower than Trump’s original policy and that the legal challenge was premature because federal agencies had not yet issued final guidance for implementing it.
Boardman wasn’t persuaded.
She said that regardless of what future guidance says, the executive order itself directs federal agencies to deny citizenship documents to broad categories of children.
The judge allowed agencies to continue developing implementation guidance but blocked enforcement of the citizenship restrictions against the certified class while the lawsuit proceeds.
The dispute stems from Trump’s original executive order issued after returning to office, which sought to deny automatic citizenship to some children born in the United States when their parents were undocumented or only temporarily present.
The Supreme Court struck down that effort in June.
Five justices concluded that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to the children covered by the case. Justice Brett Kavanaugh separately voted to block Trump’s order on statutory grounds.
The latest ruling does not necessarily end the administration’s effort. The Justice Department can appeal Boardman’s injunction, potentially sending the birthright citizenship fight back through the federal appeals courts and ultimately to the Supreme Court.
For now, however, Trump’s second attempt has met the same immediate fate as the first.
Blocked in court.
