The federal appeals court is set to hold oral arguments on a challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship in the U.S. This debate is scheduled for Friday afternoon and follows a series of lower court cases influenced by a significant Supreme Court ruling in June.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals will review consolidated cases where New Jersey and other parties are contesting Trump’s order. This comes about five weeks after the Supreme Court partly sided with the Trump administration regarding the birthright citizenship order, limiting lower courts’ ability to issue sweeping “universal injunctions” against the executive order.
Trump enacted the birthright citizenship executive order on his first day in office. It seeks to clarify the 14th Amendment, which asserts that anyone born or naturalized in the U.S. is a citizen. However, the language of the blocked order suggested that the parents of undocumented immigrants, or those here on temporary non-immigrant visas, wouldn’t confer citizenship to their children.
The Supreme Court did not take a definitive stance on the matter but directed the administration to provide a plan on enforcing the order within 30 days, effectively returning the issue to lower courts, where, so far, the administration has faced setbacks.
Recently, a federal judge in New Hampshire issued a nationwide injunction against Trump’s order, citing concerns that it would deny citizenship to all newborns in the U.S. The First Circuit hearing follows a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled by a 2-1 vote against enforcing Trump’s birthright citizenship order, deeming it unconstitutional.
The judges from the Ninth Circuit noted that the harm caused by the order necessitated the issuance of a nationwide injunction. According to US Circuit Judge Ronald Gould, the district court acted appropriately in its decision and thus upheld the request for broad relief.
How the First Circuit judges will rule remains uncertain, especially as the Trump administration has recently outlined new enforcement details related to the order. New guidance released by several U.S. agencies lays out revised requirements for parents seeking to prove their children’s citizenship at birth. For instance, the Social Security Administration stated that parents may now need to present a birth certificate indicating their child’s place of birth to establish citizenship.
The policies affected by the lower courts’ injunctions are reportedly not popular among the public. Over 22 states along with immigration rights organizations have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, claiming that the executive order is unconstitutional and without precedent.
To date, no court has favored Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, though various district courts have hindered its implementation, including following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
This is a developing situation, so updates will likely follow.
