A federal judge in Maryland late Thursday ruled President Donald Trump’s administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, issuing the fourth court decision blocking the president’s birthright citizenship order nationwide since a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman’s preliminary injunction was expected after the judge said last month she would issue such an order if the case were returned to her by an appeals court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to her later in July.
Since June, two other district courts, as well as an appellate panel of judges, have also blocked the birthright order nationwide.
An email to the White House for comment was not immediately returned.
Trump’s January order would deny citizenship to children born to parents living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
Boardman in February issued a preliminary injunction blocking it nationwide. But the June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upended that decision and other court rulings blocking the order across the nation.
The justices ruled that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.
In her ruling Thursday, Boardman certified a class of all children who have been born or will be born in the United States after February 19, 2025, who would be affected by Trump’s order.
She said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit before her were “extremely likely” to win their argument that the birthright order violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens. They were also likely to suffer irreparable harm if the order went into effect, she wrote.
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