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A federal appeals judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship for the children of individuals in the country illegally or temporarily.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin upheld a nationwide injunction on the Trump administration’s move to terminate birthright citizenship, which he had previously granted to more than a dozen states.
Sorokin stated that this ruling was an exception to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. The case is likely to return to the Supreme Court.
Trump and his administration “have the right to pursue their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the issue,” Sorokin wrote in his decision. “However, for the purposes of this lawsuit at this time, the Executive Order is deemed unconstitutional.”
The Trump administration contends that children born in the U.S. to parents in the country illegally or temporarily are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not eligible for citizenship.
Trump signed the executive order on birthright citizenship, among other orders, on his first day in office in January.
On Wednesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco also upheld the lower court’s nationwide injunction, while a federal judge in New Hampshire recently issued a ruling preventing Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action lawsuit.
Sorokin disagreed with the Trump administration’s argument that the Supreme Court’s ruling justified a narrower decision.
The plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit contended that Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional because the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, and it jeopardizes millions of dollars in state funding for crucial health insurance services dependent on citizenship status.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
