Sept 2 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order limiting the number of people eligible for birthright citizenship that President Donald Trump issued after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a preliminary injunction at the request of immigrant rights advocates who had last year secured a ruling from her blocking the Trump administration from enforcing his initial 2025 executive order curtailing birthright citizenship.
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 rejected that initial effort to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents were not American citizens or legal permanent residents, known as green card holders, finding it violated the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The clause, which was the focus of the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Barbara v. Trump, confers citizenship to those born in the United States who are "subject to the jurisdiction thereof."
Following that decision, Trump signed a new order on August 6 that took particular aim at "birth tourism," in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can obtain automatic citizenship.
Citizenship would also be denied to children if one of their parents works for foreign governments in the United States, engages in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an "alien enemy."
After he signed that order, lawyers pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of babies who would be deprived citizenship under Trump's 2025 order asked Boardman to block enforcement of the Republican president's newest order, and ensure their clients' citizenship continued to be honored.
The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, agreed to do so, saying the latest order "is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth."
"This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President's most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them," she wrote.
Her order bars agencies including the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration from taking any action to interfere with, deny or fail to recognize citizenship of people covered by the class action.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs included the immigrant rights groups CASA and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which last year convinced Boardman to become one of four lower-court judges to block Trump's initial order prior to the Supreme Court ruling.
Justice Department attorneys argued that an injunction was inappropriate in this case, as Trump's order was more narrow than the sweeping one the plaintiffs first sued over.
They also called the lawsuit premature, saying federal agencies had yet to issue the necessary public guidance detailing how the president's directive would be implemented, which they are expected to do by Saturday. Any legal challenge should wait until then, the administration argued.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that the U.S. State Department had drafted proposed guidance requiring parents applying for passports for their children to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status in order to implement that executive order.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Greenbelt, Maryland and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)
