Third judge blocks Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for kids of people in U.S. illegally

President Donald Trump is pictured before boarding Air Force One at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

CONCORD, N.H. — A third federal judge on Monday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante in New Hampshire comes after two similar rulings by judges in Seattle and Maryland last week.

Laplante, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush, said he wasn’t persuaded by the Trump administration’s defense of the executive order. He said he would issue a longer preliminary injunction later explaining his reasoning.

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that Trump’s order violates the Constitution and “attempts to upend one of the most fundamental American constitutional values.” It was brought on behalf of immigrant rights groups with members who are pregnant and whose children could be affected by the order.

“For people out there feeling scared or confused right now, I would just say that this is a right that’s enshrined in the Constitution itself as well as in federal statute,” ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project deputy director Cody Wofsy, who argued the case, said outside the courthouse. “And we and our partners, we’ll keep fighting until this executive order is ended once and for all.”

Lawyers representing the Trump administration declined to comment Monday. But Trump’s Republican administration asserts that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship. The administration is appealing the Seattle-based judge’s block on Trump’s executive order.

At least nine lawsuits have been filed to challenge the birthright citizenship order.

In the case filed by four states in Seattle, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said last week Trump administration was attempting to ignore the Constitution.

“The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or something ignored, whether that be for political or personal gain,” said Coughenour, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. “In this courtroom and under my watch the rule of law is a bright beacon, which I intend to follow.”

A federal judge in Maryland also blocked Trump’s order in another case brought by immigrants' rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-be-born children could be affected.

The Trump administration has not yet filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.

A federal judge in Boston also heard arguments last week in a suit filed by a group of 18 states. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, did not immediately rule.

Laplante, the judge in New Hampshire, praised both sides for the way they made their cases.

“I’m not persuaded by the defendants' arguments on this motion,” he said. “I have to say: I’m not offended by them, either, as a lawyer or a jurist. I think the rule of law is best served, best maintained and preserved when excellent practitioners present their arguments to the court with all the experience, expertise and knowledge they can muster.”

At the heart of the lawsuits in the three cases is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which held that Scott, an enslaved man, wasn’t a citizen despite having lived in a state where slavery was outlawed.

In 1898, in a case known as United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the U.S. Supreme Court found the only children who did not automatically receive U.S. citizenship upon being born on U.S. soil were children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government; enemies present in the U.S. during hostile occupation; those born on foreign ships; and those born to members of sovereign Native American tribes.

The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship -- the principle of jus soli, or “right of the soil” -- is applied. Most are in the Americas and Canada and Mexico are among them.

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By Lindsay Whitehurst And Kathy Mccormack

Whitehurst reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston and Mike Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this story.