A federal judge yesterday again barred President Donald Trump’s administration from denying citizenship to some babies born in the US, making use of an exception to overcome the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that restricted the ability of judges to block that and other policies nationwide.
US District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled at a hearing in Concord, New Hampshire, after immigrant rights advocates implored him to grant class action status to a lawsuit they filed seeking to represent any children whose citizenship status would be threatened by the implementation of Trump’s executive order curtailing automatic birthright citizenship.
The ruling is far from the last word in the legal battle over Trump’s order, which he signed in January on his first day back in office. The judge paused his ruling for seven days to give the Trump administration time to appeal, which a Justice Department lawyer at the hearing indicated would certainly happen.
Laplante, an appointee of Republican President George W Bush, agreed the plaintiffs could provisionally proceed as a class, allowing him to issue a fresh judicial order blocking implementation of the Republican president’s policy nationally.
Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union had urged him to do so after the Supreme Court on June 27 issued a 6-3 ruling narrowing three nationwide injunctions issued by judges in separate challenges to Trump’s directive.
The Supreme Court’s decision meant babies born in some parts of the US to parents who are not US citizens or lawful permanent residents risked being denied citizenship and becoming subject to deportation. But the ruling contained an exception for class action lawsuits that seek relief on behalf of a group of similarly situated people nationwide.
&uuid=(email))