A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it. Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the emergency order sought by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states, who argued that Trump’s executive order is a blatant violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all children born on US soil “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." The judge's action halted implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge, CNN reports. “I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said. “Where were the lawyers” when the decision to sign the executive order was made, the judge asked. He said that it “boggled” his mind that a member of the bar would claim the order was constitutional.
"Births cannot be paused” while courts consider the case, said Lane Polozola, an attorney for the state of Washington. “Babies are being born today here, and in the plaintiff states and around the country, with a cloud cast over their citizenship,” Polozola said. Children denied citizenship under Trump’s order will face “longterm substantial negative impacts,” he added. Polozola also argued that the Trump administration not only ignored those harms in the filings it has submitted so far in the dispute, but that harm “appears to be the purpose” of the executive order. Beyond the impact that Trump’s order will have on their residents, Washington and the other states are arguing that the end of birthright citizenship will burden their state programs financially and logistically, as those children are shut off from federal benefits that they would be entitled to as citizens. The Trump administration is arguing that that clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” allows the president to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants and even children whose parents are lawfully present but lack permanent legal status. Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate urged the judge to hold off on issuing an emergency order blocking the policy until there was more briefing on the policy.
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