New Hampshire judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order nationwide

A federal judge in Concord blocked the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship Thursday.

Judge Joseph Laplante granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of three non-citizen parents. LaPlante also granted class action status to the plaintiffs, meaning his order applies nationwide to babies born to undocumented immigrants and people in the U.S. with temporary status.

Ruling from the bench, Laplante described the government’s arguments as “unpersuasive,” indicating that he thought the risk of denying children citizenship constituted the threat of irreparable harm.

The ruling follows the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month limiting the scope of nationwide injunctions issued by federal courts. The court ruled that such injunctions would only apply to children born in states that were part of the original suit, which did not include New Hampshire and 27 other states, and the Trump administration’s executive order could have gone into effect in New Hampshire and elsewhere starting on July 27.

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In that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court left the door open to class action lawsuits on behalf of the impacted class as a potential alternative. The ACLU filed the suit in New Hampshire hours after that decision.

In his ruling Thursday, Laplante slightly narrowed the scope of the protected class, to include only the babies born to undocumented parents and not the parents themselves. He also issued a seven-day stay on his ruling, to allow for appeals.

The initial lead plaintiffs in this case were a pregnant woman, two parents of infants and their children. Only one of the plaintiffs lives in New Hampshire. She is due to give birth in October.

Lawyers for the ACLU cheered Laplante's ruling.

“We've gotten an outpouring of concern and confusion and fear from people who are going to be subjected to this order around the country, people telling us that they're considering changing where they're going to deliver their babies, moving away from their doctors, their communities worrying about their families being torn apart because of the Supreme Court's opening the door to this unconstitutional order,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in the case. “Today, this court slammed that door shut and made clear this cannot be applied to anyone, anywhere in the country."