Trump asks Supreme Court to partially lift birthright citizenship injunctions – JURIST
The administration of US President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to partially lift three nationwide injunctions that have blocked the implementation of an executive order on birthright citizenship, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Birthright citizenship is the legal principle that grants automatic US citizenship to nearly anyone born on US soil. Narrow exceptions exist, including for children born to foreign diplomats, but the law broadly applies regardless of parents’ citizenship status. The principle became law vis-à-vis the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution in 1868, and was upheld by the US Supreme Court in the 1898 case US v. Wong Kim Ark.
Birthright citizenship was initially established in the aftermath of the US Civil War to ensure formerly enslaved people had the full benefits of citizenship. But the practice has proven increasingly controversial with the emergence of the birth tourism industry, which brings foreign parents to the US to give birth to future US citizens.
On the first day of his current presidential term, Trump signed an executive order denying automatic US citizenship to children born on American soil if their mother was either unlawfully present or on a temporary visa, and if their father was not a US citizen or permanent resident. The order directs federal agencies to refuse to issue or accept citizenship documentation for these individuals.
The order was promptly challenged in multiple federal courts, with complainants arguing it violated the 14th Amendment. Plaintiffs argue that the order unconstitutionally reinterpreted the amendment’s citizenship clause to exclude children of unauthorized immigrants and temporary visa holders, contrary to established legal understanding. The lawsuits also challenge the procedural legitimacy of changing longstanding citizenship policy through executive order rather than constitutional amendment or congressional legislation.
In response to these challenges, three separate district courts in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington state issued overlapping nationwide injunctions. These orders prevent the administration from enforcing the citizenship policy anywhere in the country and prohibit federal agencies from even developing guidance on how they would implement it.
In its application to the Supreme Court, Trump’s Justice Department called its request “modest,” seeking only to limit the scope of the injunctions to the specific plaintiffs who filed the lawsuits rather than applying nationwide.
“These cases … raise important constitutional questions with major ramifications for securing the border,” the filing states.
The Justice Department argues that universal injunctions have “reached epidemic proportions” since the start of the Trump administration, with courts issuing more nationwide injunctions in February 2025 than during the first three years of President Biden’s term.
The filing contends that such sweeping injunctions exceed the courts’ constitutional authority, violate traditional limits on equitable relief, and improperly allow individual district judges to “govern the whole Nation from their courtrooms.”
