Trump’s birthright citizenship ban blocked by US judge in class-action ruling

In the first major test of the US Supreme Court’s recent move to rein in nationwide injunctions made by lower federal courts, a district judge in New Hampshire on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship.

Responding to a motion by immigration rights groups to certify a nationwide class action lawsuit “comprised only of those deprived of citizenship”, US District Judge Joseph Laplante in Concord said: “The preliminary injunction is just not a close call to the court.”

“The deprivation of US citizenship and an abrupt change of policy that was long-standing … that’s irreparable harm,” Laplante noted, adding that US citizenship is “the greatest privilege that exists in the world”.

Laplante, appointed by President George W. Bush, said he would stay enforcement of his ruling briefly to give the Trump administration time to appeal. A written decision was expected by day’s end.

Advancing the legal clash, the ruling came two weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that numerous lower courts placing nationwide stays on the Trump order had exceeded their authority.

“The lower courts should determine whether a narrower injunction is appropriate,” Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority in the decision released on June 27.