“I've been on the bench for more than four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour said of Trump's policy.
Coughenour's order, announced after a short hearing in a packed courtroom with other judges watching, prevents Trump's policy from being enforced nationwide for 14 days while the judge considers whether to issue a long-lasting preliminary injunction. He will hear arguments over whether to do so on February 6.
Under Trump's order, any children born in the US after February 19 whose mother and father are not American citizens or lawful permanent residents would be subject to deportation and would be prevented from obtaining social security numbers, various government benefits and the ability as they get older to work lawfully.
“Under this order, babies being born today don't count as US citizens,” Washington state assistant attorney-general Lane Polozola told the judge during the hearing.
Justice department lawyer Brett Shumate argued Trump's action was constitutional and called any judicial order blocking it “wildly inappropriate”. Before Shumate even finished responding to Polozola's argument, Coughenour said he had signed the temporary restraining order.
The justice department plans to file papers next week to urge the judge not to issue a longer injunction, Shumate said. A department spokesperson said it plans to continue to “vigorously defend” Trump's order.
“We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our nation's laws enforced,” the spokesperson said.
Washington attorney-general Nick Brown, a Democrat, said he sees no reason to expect that the department would succeed in overturning Coughenour's ruling on appeal, even if the matter goes to the US Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump.
“You are an American citizen if you were born on American soil — period,” Brown said. “Nothing the president can do will change that.”
More than 150,000 newborn children would be denied citizenship annually if Trump's order is allowed to stand, according to the Democratic-led states.
Since Trump signed the order, at least six lawsuits have been filed challenging it, most of them by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states.
Democratic state attorneys general have said the understanding of the constitution's citizenship clause was cemented 127 years ago when the US Supreme Court ruled children born in the US to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship.
The 14th amendment, adopted in 1868 after the US Civil War, overturned the Supreme Court's notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared the constitution's protections did not apply to enslaved black people.
In a brief filed late on Wednesday, the justice department called the order an “integral part” of Trump's efforts “to address this nation's broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border”.
Thirty-six of Trump's Republican allies in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday separately introduced legislation to restrict automatic citizenship to only children born to American citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Reuters
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship
Image: REUTERS/Lauren Owens Lambert
A federal judge blocked Donald Trump's administration on Thursday from implementing the Republican president's executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the US, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”.
Seattle-based US district judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order at the urging of four Democratic-led states — Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon — preventing the administration from enforcing the order. Trump signed the order on Monday, his first day back in office.
The judge, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan, dealt the first legal setback to the hardline policies on immigration that are a centrepiece of Trump's second term as president.
“Obviously we'll appeal,” Trump said of Coughenour's ruling.
Trump's executive order directed US agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US if neither their mother nor father is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
“I am having trouble understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this order is constitutional,” the judge told a US justice department lawyer defending Trump's order. “It boggles my mind.”
The states argued Trump's order violated the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the US constitution's 14th amendment that provides that anyone born in the US is a citizen.
“I've been on the bench for more than four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour said of Trump's policy.
Coughenour's order, announced after a short hearing in a packed courtroom with other judges watching, prevents Trump's policy from being enforced nationwide for 14 days while the judge considers whether to issue a long-lasting preliminary injunction. He will hear arguments over whether to do so on February 6.
Under Trump's order, any children born in the US after February 19 whose mother and father are not American citizens or lawful permanent residents would be subject to deportation and would be prevented from obtaining social security numbers, various government benefits and the ability as they get older to work lawfully.
“Under this order, babies being born today don't count as US citizens,” Washington state assistant attorney-general Lane Polozola told the judge during the hearing.
Justice department lawyer Brett Shumate argued Trump's action was constitutional and called any judicial order blocking it “wildly inappropriate”. Before Shumate even finished responding to Polozola's argument, Coughenour said he had signed the temporary restraining order.
The justice department plans to file papers next week to urge the judge not to issue a longer injunction, Shumate said. A department spokesperson said it plans to continue to “vigorously defend” Trump's order.
“We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our nation's laws enforced,” the spokesperson said.
Washington attorney-general Nick Brown, a Democrat, said he sees no reason to expect that the department would succeed in overturning Coughenour's ruling on appeal, even if the matter goes to the US Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump.
“You are an American citizen if you were born on American soil — period,” Brown said. “Nothing the president can do will change that.”
More than 150,000 newborn children would be denied citizenship annually if Trump's order is allowed to stand, according to the Democratic-led states.
Since Trump signed the order, at least six lawsuits have been filed challenging it, most of them by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states.
Democratic state attorneys general have said the understanding of the constitution's citizenship clause was cemented 127 years ago when the US Supreme Court ruled children born in the US to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship.
The 14th amendment, adopted in 1868 after the US Civil War, overturned the Supreme Court's notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared the constitution's protections did not apply to enslaved black people.
In a brief filed late on Wednesday, the justice department called the order an “integral part” of Trump's efforts “to address this nation's broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border”.
Thirty-six of Trump's Republican allies in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday separately introduced legislation to restrict automatic citizenship to only children born to American citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Reuters
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