US District Judge Joseph Laplante said his decision was “not a close call.”
Supreme Court lifts block over Trump’s birthright citizenship order
The Supreme Court decision on 6-3 releases the bloc against President Trump’s order to deny citizenship to undocumented immigrants and babies with visa holders.
CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge has banned President Donald Trump’s administration again from enforcing his executive orders limiting birthright citizenship nationwide after the Supreme Court’s ability to use a national injunction to block his policies.
US District Judge Joseph Laplante of Concord, New Hampshire, ruled on July 10 after immigration rights defenders pleaded with class action status to a lawsuit seeking to represent a baby whose citizenship status is threatened by the implementation of Trump’s instructions.
Laplante agreed that plaintiffs could proceed as rank, allowing them to issue new judicial orders that would block the implementation of Republican presidential policies nationwide.
The question of whether to issue an injunction is “not a close call,” he said.
“It’s just irreparable harm, citizenship,” he said. “It’s the greatest privilege that exists in the world.”
The judge said he would allow the Trump administration to appeal and would maintain his sentence for several days to take a written decision by the end of the day.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others filed the lawsuit hours after the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in support of a conservative majority on June 27, narrowing down three national injunctions the judge issued on separate assignments to Trump’s instructions.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a non-US citizen living in the United States where the baby could be affected.
Under the Supreme Court ruling, Trump’s executive order will take effect on July 27th.
The plaintiff’s lawyers allegedly attempted to seize an exception in the Supreme Court decision. The decision argued that the judge could continue to block Trump’s policies nationwide in class actions.
Three judges who issued a nationwide injunction discovered that Trump’s orders are likely to violate citizenship language in the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment states that all “people born or naturalized in the United States or who are subject to their jurisdiction are citizens of the United States and the state in which they live.”
The Justice Department argued that Trump’s orders were constitutional and asked Laplante to find out that plaintiffs cannot sue as rank.
The Supreme Court decision did not address the legal merits of Trump’s orders issued by the Republican president on the first day of January as part of his hard-hitting immigration agenda.
Trump’s orders direct federal agencies to refuse to grant citizenship to US-born children without at least one parent who is also known as the owner of “green cards” or a legal permanent resident.
More than 150,000 newborns would be denied citizenship each year, according to democratically-led states and immigration rights advocates who challenged it.
