U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump's new birthright citizenship executive order.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that the White House cannot deny citizenship to a class of children whom the Supreme Court has already determined are Americans at birth.
In a sharply worded opinion, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, an appointee of President Joe Biden, said the administration's new executive order conflicts with a recent Supreme Court decision that said that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the country are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause.
"The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are 'citizens at birth,'" Boardman wrote. "Barbara is the law of the land. The President must follow it."
Boardman granted a preliminary injunction against key portions of the order. The ruling means federal agencies, including the State Department, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Social Security Administration (SSA), cannot apply the new policy to the group of children covered by the lawsuit while the case proceeds.
"When I joined this lawsuit, I was two months pregnant and terrified that the government would refuse to recognize my baby as a citizen simply because we are an immigrant family," Juana, a We Are CASA member and class representative on the case, said in a press release.
"I am grateful that we came together and that the courts continue to uphold our children’s rights. Today’s decision gives me relief because my child and thousands of other children remain protected. I will continue to raise my voice with other immigrant families to show that we have the power to defeat these attacks."
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment Wednesday evening.
Trump's Attempts to End Birthright Citizenship
The decision is the latest chapter in a long-running legal fight over Trump's efforts to narrow birthright citizenship through executive action.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly argued that birthright citizenship encouraged illegal immigration and publicly floated plans to end or narrow the practice through executive action. Those proposals generated intense legal debate but were never implemented before he left office in January 2021.
Within hours of returning to office in January 2025, Trump issued Executive Order 14160, titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship."
That order sought to deny citizenship to many children born in the United States whose parents lacked permanent legal status. The policy immediately triggered lawsuits across the country, including the Maryland case brought by immigrant-rights organizations CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.
Although the administration argued its new 2026 order targeted specific categories of children it believes fall outside constitutional protections, Boardman concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing the policy is unconstitutional as applied to the certified class.
She said the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Barbara already established that those children are citizens under the Constitution, leaving the administration little room to reach a different result through a new executive order.
The injunction does not strike down the entire executive order nationwide, nor does it prevent the administration from developing implementation guidance. But it preserves the status quo for the class of children covered by the lawsuit and sets up what is likely to be another appeal in a legal battle that could ultimately return to the Supreme Court.
What the Supreme Court Recently Decided
Boardman's ruling rests heavily on the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Barbara, issued in July. In that case, the justices considered Trump's earlier 2025 executive order, which broadly sought to deny citizenship to children born in the United States when their parents were unlawfully present or only temporarily present in the country.
According to Boardman's opinion, the Supreme Court held that those children are protected by the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and are therefore "citizens at birth." The high court concluded that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present do not fall within the narrow historical exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by American law.
Boardman said that holding effectively settled the central question for the class of children involved in the Maryland lawsuit. "No Presidential Executive Order can undo what the Supreme Court has done," she wrote.
What the Constitution Says
The dispute centers on the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War.
Its Citizenship Clause states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Boardman's opinion reviews more than a century of Supreme Court precedent interpreting that language. The judge noted that the Supreme Court in Barbara traced birthright citizenship to the English common-law principle of jus soli, or citizenship based on place of birth, and concluded that the Constitution generally guarantees citizenship to people born on U.S. soil.
The Supreme Court also reaffirmed its reliance on the landmark 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that most children born in the United States are citizens regardless of their parents' immigration status. According to Boardman's ruling, the Supreme Court recently recognized only narrow historical exceptions, such as children of foreign diplomats and certain other rare circumstances involving limits on U.S. jurisdiction.What Happens Next
The injunction takes effect immediately and preserves the citizenship status of the children covered by the lawsuit while the case proceeds. The judge ordered federal agencies not to enforce the 2026 executive order against those class members or take actions that would deny or fail to recognize their citizenship.
Is This Article Fair?
Select an option to vote. You can change it anytime.
May you like
Boardman did not block every aspect of the executive order. The administration remains free to develop and publish implementation guidance, and one section of the order not affecting the certified class was left untouched.
The Justice Department is expected to appeal, setting up what could become another major test of the administration's efforts to reshape birthright citizenship and a possible return to the Supreme Court. For now, however, Boardman's message was unequivocal: the lower courts remain bound by the Supreme Court's recent ruling, and so is the president.
