Pro-immigration activists rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in this file photo from 2021. (Robin Bravender/States Newsroom)
Justice Department attorneys told a federal district judge Tuesday that the Trump administration will not impose proposed restrictions on birthright citizenship for a month — but that it reserves the right to “immediately” start planning for that day.
The two-page notice was filed in U.S.District Court in Greenbelt in response to District Judge Deborah Boardman’s demand a day earlier to know “if the government thinks that it can start removing children from the United States who are subject to the terms of the executive order,”
It is the latest twist in a months-long legal battle over an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 21, his first day back in office, that sought to deny citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. unless at least one of their parents was a citizen or a permanent legal resident.
Historically, “birthright” citizenship has been granted to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parent’s status. But Trump claimed in his executive order that that was a misinterpretation of the law, which he claimed was never intended to apply to everyone.
Judge gives administration until Tuesday to put birthright citizenship plans in writing
The order was almost immediately challenged in court by groups that said birthright citizenship is a bedrock of U.S democracy, and that denying citizenship to a child born here could make the child stateless altogether. Judges in three different districts, including Boardman, agreed and issued nationwide injunctions to block the order.
The government appeal focused on whether the district court judges had the authority to impose a nationwide ban on the order. In a 6-3 ruling Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the judges should not have extended the injunction beyond those people and groups that brought the suits.
But the high court’s ruling noted that a class-action suit could apply nationally. That’s why the plaintiffs in the Maryland case — CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project at 15 women who are pregnant or new mothers — were back in court Monday, seeking to get their suit certified as a class action suit for all undocumented parents and their babies.
The Supreme Court sent the cases back to the district court, but also set July 27 as the earliest date the administration can apply the executive order, to allow time for the cases to be reheard. On Monday, Boardman ordered Trump’s attorneys to clarify in writing the government’s view of what it can do under the executive order, and when.
Trump’s attorneys agreed in the filing that the earliest date the administration would apply the order is, in fact, July 27. But the the court’s ruling also provided for a 30-day ramp-up period, the notice said.
“The Court’s stay thus allows Defendants to immediately begin to ‘develop[] and issu[e] public guidance about the Executive’s plans to implement the Executive Order,’” the filing reads.
Boardman also gave Trump’s lawyers until July 7 to file a response to the plaintiffs’ motion to turn the case into a class action lawsuit.
This article was originally published by Maryland Matters, a part of States Newsroom.
This post was originally authored and published by Lauren Lifke from Missouri Independent via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
