Featured Image Credit: Getty/JIM WATSON
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics
Callum Jones
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's order to end a birthright citizenship across the US.
Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office just over two weeks ago, and he's certainly wasted no time in getting his policies across and into writing.
The 47th POTUS has signed off on numerous executive orders, which included halting the ban of TikTok, changing laws on immigration, and declaring that there are 'only two genders'.
And over the past few days, we've even got the threat of a trade war and the creation of the very first US wealth fund.
Advert
Another one of Trump's executive orders aimed at ending birthright citizenship, though a federal judge in Maryland has since issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against it.
On Wednesday (February 5), District Judge Deborah Boardman heard arguments from five women hoping to block Trump's executive order, and the judge has sided with them.
"The denial of the precious right to citizenship will cause irreparable harm," Judge Boardman as she handed down her order.
"It has been said the right to U.S. citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. If the court does not enjoin enforcement of the executive order, children subject to the order will be denied the rights and benefits of US citizenship and their parents will face instability."
The judge added: "A nationwide injunction is appropriate and necessary because it concerns citizenship."
In her ruling delivered on Wednesday (February 5), the judge concluded Trump's executive order "conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment."
"The U.S. Supreme court has resoundingly rejected the president's interpretation of the citizenship clause," Judge Boardman added.
"In fact, no court has endorsed the president's interpretation, and this court will not be the first."
Meanwhile, the plaintiffs' attorney Joseph Mead added: "The executive order's departure from settled law is so abrupt ... it is such a departure from what we've been doing for over a century. Being a citizen is the foundation for so many rights."
While the Department of Justice argued for the executive order to make its way through into law.
"Text, history, and precedent support what common sense compels: the Constitution does not harbor a windfall clause granting American citizenship to, inter alia: the children of those who have circumvented (or outright defied) federal immigration laws," they argued, as per ABC News.
Before today's ruling, Trump's executive order had already been put on hold by US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle.