SEATTLE: A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”

US District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day on office.

“This is blatantly unconstitutional order,” the judge told a lawyer with the US Justice Department defending Trump’s order. The order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it a flagrant violation of the US Constitution.

“Under this order, babies being born today don’t count as US citizens,” Washington Assistant Attorney General Lane Polozola told Senior US District Judge John Coughenour at the start of a hearing in Seattle.

Polozola — on behalf of Democratic state attorneys general from Washington state, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon — urged the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from carrying out this key element of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The challengers argue that Trump’s action violates the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

Trump in his executive order directed US agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father is a US citizen or legal permanent resident.

In a brief filed late on Wednesday, the US Justice Department called the order an “integral part” of the president’s efforts “to address this nation’s broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border.” The lawsuit filed in Seattle has been progressing more quickly than the four other cases brought over the executive order. It has been assigned to Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan.

The judge potentially could rule from the bench after hearing arguments, or he could wait to write a decision ahead of Trump’s order taking effect.

Under the order, any children born after Feb 19 whose mothers or fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents would be subject to

deportation and would be prevented from obtaining Social Security numbers, various government benefits and the ability as they get older to work lawfully.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2025