US Judge Declines Immediate Block on President Donald Trump's New Birthright Citizenship Order

US President Donald Trump has sought to limit birthright citizenship as part of a broader crackdown on immigration. A United States judge has rejected, for the time being, a request for a temporary restraining order to block President Donald Trump’s second executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

Friday’s decision marked one of the first legal tests for the new executive order, which Trump issued on August 6 after his initial attempts to limit birthright citizenship were struck down by the Supreme Court. District Court Judge Deborah Boardman, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, declined to immediately approve the preliminary injunction despite expressing concern over the new order.

“As far as I can tell, this is unprecedented,” Judge Deborah Boardman stated regarding the directive. She instructed the plaintiffs—a coalition of immigrant families and advocacy groups—to directly address the latest executive order in their ongoing lawsuit, and indicated a briefing would be scheduled once a revised complaint is filed.

In 2025, Judge Deborah Boardman was among the judges who approved preliminary injunctions blocking the first birthright citizenship order signed by President Donald Trump, declaring it unlawful. President Donald Trump and his allies have continually argued that birthright citizenship encourages “birth tourism” as a means of securing citizenship for babies.

Birthright citizenship is constitutionally protected under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees that nearly all children born on US soil receive citizenship regardless of parental nationality or immigration status. Adopted in 1868 following the US Civil War, the amendment ensured that formerly enslaved people were not deprived of their rights, a broad applicability later reinforced in cases such as United States v Wong Kim Ark.

Despite this, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, barring government agencies from issuing citizenship documents to children whose parents were unlawfully present or had lawful but temporary status. On June 30, the Supreme Court struck down this 2025 order in a 6–3 decision, ruling it unconstitutional.

In response, President Donald Trump issued a narrower second birthright citizenship order on August 6, targeting children born to parents deemed “alien enemies” or “terrorists,” those involved in commercial transactions to access citizenship, or people from US territories like American Samoa where federal statutes do not confer citizenship.

A coalition of immigrant families and rights groups, including We Are CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, pledged to challenge the new order. Although lawyers argued that the fundamental principle remains unchanged—that the president cannot deny citizenship to children born on US soil—the legal battle is expected to continue with a revised petition for a temporary restraining order.