A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed a district court's nationwide injunction against enforcement of President Trump's birthright citizenship Executive Order, concluding that the E.O. is likely unlawful and that a nationwide injunction is necessary to provide complete relief to the plaintiff states. [As I said in today's Civitas Outlook column: "universal injunctions are dead, long live nationwide relief."]
Judge Gould wrote for the panel in Washington v. Trump, joined by Judge Hawkins. Here is how he summarizes the opinion:
Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon ("States") and individual expectant mothers ("Individual Plaintiffs") challenge as unconstitutional Executive Order No. 14160 ("Executive Order"), which purports to deny citizenship to the children born in United States territory of parents temporarily or unlawfully present in the United States. See Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, Exec. Order No. 14,160, 90 Fed. Reg. 8449 (Jan. 20, 2025). The district court entered a universal preliminary injunction which bars implementation of the Executive Order. Defendants appeal, contending that the States lack standing to challenge the Executive Order, that it was error to issue a preliminary injunction, and that the scope of the injunction is overbroad.
We address whether the Executive Order is constitutional and valid. We conclude that the Executive Order is invalid because it contradicts the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment's grant of citizenship to "all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).
Because the Individual Plaintiffs are covered by a certified class action in another federal court, we decline to exercise jurisdiction over their claims and dismiss them. But because State Plaintiffs have standing and are likely to succeed in demonstrating that the Executive Order is unconstitutional, we affirm the district court's grant of a preliminary injunction and its determination that a universal preliminary injunction is necessary to give the States complete relief on their claims.
