Trump Administration Appeals Loss on Birthright Citizenship

The US Justice Department is appealing an order by a Seattle federal judge blocking President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict automatic birthright citizenship.

The government filed a notice Thursday evening that it will appeal, hours after US District Judge John Coughenour announced his decision. The appeal marks the first move by the administration to take the issue to a higher court after a series of setbacks.

Trump’s executive action would deny automatic birthright citizenship to babies born to parents who are in the US without legal status or who are on non-permanent visas to work, study or visit. It was set to fully take effect Feb. 19, but is now on hold.

Coughenour was the first judge to temporarily halt the birthright citizenship order that Trump signed shortly after being sworn in, calling the action “blatantly unconstitutional.” On Thursday, he granted the challengers — a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general — a longer-term preliminary injunction.

The fight will shift to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a majority of Democrat-appointed active judges but moved more to the right ideologically under Trump.

Earlier in the week, a federal judge in Maryland had ordered a preliminary injunction blocking the executive action, but the government has not moved to appeal that yet.

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The case is State of Washington v. Trump, 25-cv-127, US District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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