On Thursday, a federal judge in New Hampshire once again blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump that sought to restrict the right to automatic citizenship by birth in the United States for children of parents who are neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents.
This judicial decision comes just two weeks after the Supreme Court limited the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions, although it left open the possibility of granting protection through class action lawsuits.
Judge Joseph Laplante, appointed by former President George W. Bush, provisionally certified a class action lawsuit filed by immigrant rights advocates, which allowed him to issue a new preliminary order blocking the nationwide implementation of the measure.
This decision is based on an exception allowed by the Supreme Court in its recent ruling, which enables class actions as an alternative legal avenue to halt federal policies.
Trump's executive order, signed in January after returning to the presidency, instructed federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born on U.S. soil if their parents do not have at least one who is a citizen or a green card holder. If applied nationwide, this policy could deny citizenship to more than 150,000 newborns per year, according to the plaintiffs' estimates.
During the hearing, Laplante stated that denying citizenship to a child constitutes irreparable harm: "Citizenship is the greatest privilege that exists in the world."
For that reason, he described the decision to issue the injunction as "not a difficult decision" for the court. However, he temporarily suspended its implementation for seven days to give Trump's administration time to appeal, something a Department of Justice attorney confirmed they would do.
