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Federal judge blocks Trump’s birthright citizenship ban for all infants, testing lower court powers

Justice Department had planned to begin enforcing the landmark immigration policy as early as July 27

By Breanne Deppisch , Andrew Fone Fox News

Published July 10, 2025 10:46am EDT | Updated July 10, 2025 11:17am EDT

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SCOTUS limits nationwide injunctions with ‘extremely significant’ birthright decision

Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra and constitutional attorney Mark Smith weigh in on how the Supreme Court limiting nationwide injunctions on federal judges will impact the birthright citizenship ruling.

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A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship and granted nationwide class certification status to all infants impacted by the order on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante said that he will issue a written ruling by the end of the day further explaining his decision. The injunction also narrows down the scope of the class to infants, removing parents from the case.

In his order, LaPlante ruled that deprivation of citizenship, as held by the 14th Amendment, and changes in longstanding policy would create “irreparable harm.”

TRUMP TO BEGIN ENFORCING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER AS EARLY AS THIS MONTH, DOJ SAYS

Night view of the Supreme Court of the United States known as SCOTUS in Washington D.C. with the round water fountain.The Main Entrance with lights, the West Facade with the marble Pediment and the inscription EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW. The Supreme Court Building illuminated during the night. The historical building houses the Supreme Court of the United States, referred to as The Marble Palace, the building serves as the official workplace of the Chief Justice of the United States and the eight associate justices of the Supreme Court. It is located at 1 First Street in Northeast Washington, D.C., in the block immediately east of the United States Capitol and north of the Library of Congress. The building is managed by the Architect of the Capitol and is designated a National Historic Landmark The Supreme Court is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of U.S. Constitutional or federal law. Washington DC, USA on November 8, 2024 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Still, it is almost sure to be quickly appealed by the Trump administration. It comes after the Supreme Court reviewed the case earlier this year, and ruled 6-3 in late June that plaintiffs seeking nationwide relief must file their cases as a class action lawsuit — narrowing the instances in which lower district courts can issue so-called universal injunctions.

That high court ruling narrowly focused on the authority of lower courts, and justices did not wade into the legality of Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, which served as the legal pretext for the case.

Still, Justice Department officials told a federal judge last week they plan to begin enforcing Trump’s birthright citizenship order as early as July 27, in recognition of a 30-day stay included in the Supreme Court’s ruling, showing they plan to act quickly.

Trump’s order, signed on the first day of his second White House term, directs all U.S. government agencies to refuse to issue citizenship documents to children born to illegal immigrants, or who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen of lawful permanent resident.

NINTH CIRCUIT REJECTS TRUMP’S BID TO REINSTATE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks alongside President Donald Trump on recent Supreme Court rulings in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The order, signed by Trump on his first day in office, was immediately challenged in January by more than 22 U.S. states and immigrants’ rights groups, which argued the effort to end birthright citizenship was both unconstitutional and “unprecedented,” and threatened more than 100 years of legal precedent.

It was almost immediately blocked by lower courts, before eventually making its way to the Supreme Court for review in May.

The high court’s decision also touched off a flurry of new lawsuits from the ACLU and other immigration advocacy groups, who re-filed class action lawsuits in federal courts in Maryland and in New Hampshire, where LaPlante reviewed the request Thursday.

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Lawyers for the Trump administration stressed last week that the Supreme Court’s ruling did not preclude it from taking other actions before that date, and told U.S. it plans to “immediately” begin developing and issuing public guidance on the order.

Advocates have warned possible fallout from the order could prove “catastrophic.”

Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.

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