On July 23, local time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals once again ruled that
President Trump’s executive order to abolish birthright citizenship is unconstitutional and ordered a nationwide temporary suspension of the executive order.
The court found that the order violated the birthright citizenship explicitly granted by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Despite the Supreme Court’s previous directive for lower courts to avoid nationwide injunctions, the judges in this case pointed out that uniform application of nationwide injunctions was necessary to prevent “incongruity in citizenship between states.” Washington State and 21 other plaintiff states argued that if citizenship were determined by the state of birth, it would lead to irreversible legal chaos and financial losses.
The Supreme Court rules on the U.S. government’s abolition of “birthright citizenship”
Federal district judges have no authority to issue nationwide injunctions
In response to the lawsuits filed against the Trump administration’s attempt to restrict “birthright citizenship” through an executive order, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that federal district judges have no authority to issue nationwide injunctions to prevent the implementation of such measures. The Supreme Court stated that nationwide injunctions “may exceed the power vested in the federal district courts by Congress.”
According to U.S. media reports, the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court approved the Trump administration’s request with a 6-3 vote to limit the scope of injunctions issued by federal district judges, only applying them to the states, groups, and individuals filing lawsuits. However, the ruling did not address whether the administrative order itself restricting “birthright citizenship” was unconstitutional.
The policy of “birthright citizenship” has been in place in the United States for over a century, ensuring that all people born in the country are citizens regardless of their parents’ status. On his first day in office on January 20 this year, President Trump signed an executive order abolishing “birthright citizenship,” which stipulates that newborns of non-citizens or legal permanent residents cannot automatically obtain U.S. citizenship. (Xu Xiao)