Trump asks US Supreme Court to intervene in bid to curb birthright citizenship
The American president’s day one order on citizenship for US-born children has been blocked nationwide by multiple federal judges
Donald Trump took the fight over his attempt to restrict automatic US birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court on Thursday as the Republican president’s administration asked the justices to narrow a judicial block imposed on this key element of his hardline approach toward immigration.
The US Justice Department made the request challenging the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued against Trump’s order by federal courts in Washington, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Trump’s order, signed on his first day back in office on January 20, directed federal agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of US-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The order was intended to apply starting February 19, but has been blocked nationwide by multiple federal judges.
Trump’s action has drawn a series of lawsuits from plaintiffs including Democratic state attorneys general, immigrant rights advocates and expectant mothers. They argue among other things that Trump’s order violates a right enshrined in the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.
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The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause states that all “persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside”.