A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship for children born to parents without legal immigration status.
US District Judge John Corneau’s national interim injunction comes two weeks after he issued. Temporary suppression order It will set a 14-day stop in the Trump administration, which acts on a plan to ban birthright citizenship.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear to our president that the rule of law is merely a barrier to his policy goals,” Coughenour said Thursday. “In this courtroom, and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon that I intend to follow.”
Later that day, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed Coughenour’s decision to grant the injunction.
The previous temporary restraining order was the country’s first order to block an executive order signed on Trump’s first inauguration. Thursday is 14 days since Coughenour’s first sentence.
Coughenour’s ruling comes from lawsuits filed by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and his counterparts in Oregon, Arizona and Illinois.
A federal judge in Maryland also has a case filed Wednesday by two immigration nonprofits and five pregnant women. Blocked Trump’s attempt to eliminate birthright.
Lane Porozola of the Washington Attorney General’s Office said the case justified another injunction. Because the state faces different effects, Washington and other cases related to that case cannot affect the development of Maryland’s lawsuit.
A hearing on a preliminary injunction was set up on Friday in the third case filed by the 18 states.
Unless the superior court overturns them, the injunction could remain in effect until the case is resolved. The lawyers assume that the matter will ultimately end in front of the US Supreme Court, where three Trump appointees sit.
Before the Supreme Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will have jurisdiction over the case. The Democratic president has appointed a majority of circuit judges.
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Brown thanked his lawyer, saying, “I am grateful for reminding him that there is no king in this country.”
“We have a president who has to follow the law. If we want to amend the constitution, we have a process of doing that,” Brown said.
At a court hearing last month, Coughenour denounced Trump’s attorneys from the Justice Department and called the president’s order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Since then, Coughenour has Consolidated state cases Three pregnant women from Washington did not submit legal immigration status. Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigration Rights Project, said one of the women later dropped out of the case for fear of the impact.
Meanwhile, with the help of Pete Serrano, who failed Washington State Attorney General last year, 18 Republican-led states have urged judges to set presidential orders.
Coughenour, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan to the federal bench in 1981 on Thursday, pointed out how impressive the court applications from Washington and other states on its side, and at his job He praised Brown.
Trump’s enforcement actions aim to end the birthright citizenship of babies born to mothers and fathers who are not US citizens or legal permanent residents. Orders were set to take effect on February 19th.
In 2022, around 153,000 babies were born to two parents with no legal immigration status nationwide, including 4,000 in Washington.
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution He codified citizenship from birth in 1868, and legal precedents have supported it ever since.
The correction is as follows: “Everyone born or naturalized in the United States is subject to that jurisdiction and is a citizen of the United States and the state in which they live.”
Trump’s order focused on the phrase “object of that jurisdiction.”
“The amendment to Article 14 has never been interpreted as a universal extension of citizenship to all born within the United States,” reads Trump’s executive order. “The 14th amendment has always been excluded from birthright citizenship, which was born in the United States but is not “the subject of its jurisdiction.” ”
But these children are still subject to U.S. law and the state needs to provide services to them, a Washington lawyer argued. If they are no longer US citizens, the state will lose federal dollars for those services.
Coughenour said the constitution is “not something that the government can play a policy game.”
“If the government wants to change American subsidies, which are exceptional for birthright citizenship, then we need to amend the constitution itself. That’s how our constitution works, and that’s how the rule of law works.” The judge continued. “The president’s orders are clearly unconstitutional as they try to circumscribe this process.”
Much of Thursday’s arguments centered around the 1898 US Supreme Court case. In that decision, the US Supreme Court upheld the concept of birthright citizenship by controlling Wong Kim Ark, a man born to Chinese parents in San Francisco.
However, lawyers for the Trump administration argued that justice in that case is noted that citizenship is only carried to people with “permanent US residences and residences.” . People here do not have illegal or temporary permanent settlements here, they said.
The state’s lawyers quote a different passage from the Wong Kim Ark case. “While resides here, all citizens or subjects of other countries are within the scope of loyalty and protection and as a result are subject to US jurisdiction.”
This story has been updated.
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