US federal judge blocks Trump's revised order restricting birthright citizenship

Injunction against the revised order

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday blocking the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order signed on August 6 that restricted birthright citizenship. The order targeted what the White House designated as birth tourism, the practice where pregnant women travel to the United States to give birth so their newborns receive automatic citizenship. The directive also sought to withhold citizenship from children born on American soil if their parents work for foreign governments in the country, engage in commercial transactions or fraud to gain citizenship, or fall under the classification of alien enemies.

Boardman's injunction prohibits federal agencies from interfering with, denying, or failing to recognize the citizenship of infants covered by the class action. The restricted agencies include the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration.

Supreme Court precedent and the Barbara ruling

The legal challenge was brought by immigrant rights organizations, including the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, acting on behalf of families and babies who previously contested President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order. That initial 2025 order, issued on Trump's first day in office, attempted to deny citizenship to children born to undocumented migrants or temporary visa holders. Judge Boardman had enjoined that first order in 2025 before the case reached the nation's highest court.

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Barbara v. Trump that the administration's original attempt violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. When the administration issued narrower carveouts in August, plaintiffs returned to Boardman, arguing that the new directives defied that Supreme Court holding.

This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President's most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them.

Boardman, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote that the revised order was almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class because the Supreme Court in Barbara had already determined that the children represented in the suit are citizens at birth. Although the judge halted active enforcement, her ruling temporarily allows federal agencies to continue drafting administrative guidance on how the directives might be implemented.

The 14th Amendment and legal history

The constitutional foundation for birthright citizenship rests in the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 following the American Civil War. The text establishes that all individuals born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the country. Past judicial rulings have interpreted the provision to grant automatic citizenship to anyone born on American soil, excluding narrow exceptions such as the children of accredited foreign diplomats or invading military forces.

The constitutional guarantee was affirmed in the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which centered on an American-born man whose parents were Chinese citizens. The Trump administration argued that broader travel access in the modern era requires narrowing the clause, contending that temporary visitors and undocumented foreigners do not fall under the legal jurisdiction of the United States. Following Wednesday's injunction, the administration did not immediately issue a public response, and proceedings in the class-action lawsuit continue.