Judge Blocks Trump Order Limiting Birthright Citizenship

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks again to limit automatic citizenship for children born in the United States, granting a preliminary injunction while litigation continues.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued the order on Wednesday in a case brought by two immigration advocacy groups that challenged the administration’s earlier attempt last year to restrict who qualifies for citizenship at birth.

Injunction Against Enforcement

Boardman, appointed by President Joe Biden, said the new directive was “almost certainly” unconstitutional as it applies to the group of children identified in the lawsuit.

Her ruling bars the government from enforcing the restriction against children born after 19 February 2025 to one or both parents who were not lawfully in the country at the time of birth.

“The Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them,” Boardman wrote in a 35-page opinion.

The Hill has contacted the White House for comment.

Ruling Hinges on Supreme Court Decision

The judge’s decision drew directly on a June Supreme Court ruling that blocked Trump’s earlier “Day 1” executive order and reaffirmed the scope of the 14th Amendment.

Five of the Supreme Court’s justices said the amendment guarantees automatic citizenship to nearly all children born on U.S. soil, including those whose parents are in the country without lawful status. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also backed blocking the order, but said he would do so on statutory rather than constitutional grounds.

Boardman said the administration’s position relied on an interpretation she found inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s conclusion that children in the class met the two requirements of the Citizenship Clause, including citizenship by virtue of birth in the United States.

New Orders Target Birth Tourism

About a month after the June ruling, Trump issued a pair of executive orders aimed at curbing what the administration calls “birth tourism”, describing the practice as travelling to the United States primarily to give birth on U.S. soil.

The orders also sought to widen the categories of people whose children would not be eligible for automatic citizenship, including children born to a parent described in the orders as an “alien enemy” or a member of a foreign terrorist organisation, along with other specified categories.

CASA, Inc., and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, Inc., which had previously secured a nationwide injunction from the same court, returned to ask Boardman to intervene again.

Government Argues The Case Is Premature

The Justice Department defended the new restrictions, saying they were narrower than what the Supreme Court had already rejected. It also argued that the lawsuit was premature because the president’s order had not yet been implemented.

Boardman rejected those points, saying the government’s arguments were unpersuasive and that it was relying on a distorted reading of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

In her opinion, the judge found that, in light of the June decision, the plaintiffs had established grounds for a preliminary injunction.

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3 September 2026

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