Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Restrictions on Birthright Citizenship

The Supreme Court last month blocked nationwide injunctions, but left the door open to class-action lawsuits.

People protest in support of birthright citizenship outside the Supreme Court.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP

A federal judge in New Hampshire said Thursday that he would block President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante greenlit a class-action lawsuit brought last month by the American Civil Liberties Union and others. The organizations filed their suit hours after the Supreme Court limited nationwide injunctions but left a carveout for class-action lawsuits to block the president’s policies from going into effect across the country.

Trump’s Day 1 order limiting birthright citizenship would reverse more than a century of precedent that anyone born on U.S. soil is an American citizen.