Lawyers are going to court to challenge President Donald Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship.
This comes just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the only way to legally block President Trump's policies on a national level is through class-action lawsuits. Attorneys representing plaintiffs in cases from New Hampshire and Maryland raced back to court to file such lawsuits.
A Trump administration lawyer says he plans to oppose those legal maneuvers. The Justice Department is expected to submit additional written legal arguments in the cases in the coming days.
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The court did not rule on the constitutionality of President Trump's executive order. However, the ruling effectively allows President Trump to begin enforcing his executive order, pending legal challenges at the lower court level. The court ruled by a 6-3 majority, with the court's three liberal judges dissenting.
President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that would cease the automatic granting of citizenship at birth to children of immigrants in the U.S. without legal status.
One day later, 22 states filed lawsuits to prevent the order from being enforced.
The Democratic-led states argue that birthright citizenship is a right for all people born in the U.S. under the 14th Amendment, which was enacted in 1868.
“Every court to have looked at this cruel order agrees that it is unconstitutional,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in this case. “The Supreme Court’s decision did not remotely suggest otherwise, and we are fighting to make sure President Trump cannot trample on the citizenship rights of a single child.”
In the following weeks, several district court judges issued injunctions stopping the Trump administration from implementing the order. The Trump administration argued that federal district court judges should not be able to issue such wide injunctions.
The Supreme Court agreed with President Trump's argument.
Birthright citizenship provides U.S. citizenship to all children born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' immigration status.
