A federal judge has temporarily blocked the birthright citizenship executive order that President Donald Trump issued on Monday, which seeks to bar certain children born to foreign parents on U.S. soil from automatically receiving citizenship. The order is now on hold for at least two weeks.
"I've been on the bench for over four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is," said Western District of Washington Judge John C. Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee. "This is a blatantly unconstitutional order."
On the first night of his second presidential term, Trump signed a long-promised executive order challenging the 14th Amendment's guarantee that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." The 14th Amendment "has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States," the order countered.
