A federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s latest executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship, citing the Supreme Court’s June ruling that the constitutional right is protected under the 14th Amendment. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction against the August 6 order, which sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born to certain groups of parents, including those designated as “alien enemies” or engaged in commercial “birth tourism.”
Judge Boardman wrote in a 35-page opinion that the order “is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class.” She noted that the Supreme Court had already decided the matter in Trump v. Barbara, a case decided June 30, 2026, with a 6-3 majority affirming that children born in the United States are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Trump signed his first executive order on birthright citizenship on January 20, 2025, his first day back in office. That order sought broadly to end automatic citizenship for children born to undocumented or temporarily present parents. The Supreme Court rejected that effort, holding that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born on U.S. soil. After the June defeat, Trump issued the August executive order in a narrower attempt, targeting specific categories of births while claiming to address what his administration calls “birth tourism”—traveling to the country primarily to give birth on U.S. soil.
Boardman’s order prohibits the administration from enforcing the new restriction against any child born after February 19, 2025, to one or both parents who were not lawfully in the country. The judge rejected the Justice Department’s argument that the new order was sufficiently different from the one the Supreme Court struck down, writing that the administration was relying on a “distorted interpretation” of the high court’s decision.
The case was brought by CASA Inc., a Maryland-based nonprofit organization, and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the same groups that won an injunction blocking Trump’s initial 2025 order. Boardman had previously blocked that first attempt in February 2025 and extended the injunction nationwide. When the August order was signed, she initially denied a motion to block it on a technicality—the plaintiffs’ complaint still referenced the 2025 order rather than the new one. But she signaled skepticism about the new order’s constitutionality, calling it “unprecedented” and indicating she would rule in favor of the plaintiffs once they updated their complaint.
When the revised complaint was filed, Boardman granted the preliminary injunction, writing: “Since his second term in office began on January 20, 2025, the President has tried, through Executive Order, to upend our country’s longstanding tradition of birthright citizenship and eliminate, for large swaths of Americans, the right to citizenship by birth, a right enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The White House disputed the ruling. Spokesperson Lauren Bis called Boardman an “activist judge appointed by Biden” and argued that “the birthright citizenship executive order is consistent with the holdings and analysis set forth by the Supreme Court.” Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration expected the ruling and indicated it would “continue to fight” the issue, stating: “if we have to go back to the Supreme Court, we will.”
The Supreme Court’s June decision in Trump v. Barbara marked a significant reaffirmation of birthright citizenship protections. Five justices affirmed that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship to nearly all children born on U.S. soil, including those born to parents who are in the country unlawfully. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also voted to block Trump’s order but on narrower statutory grounds. The ruling settled a question that has been constitutional law since the 19th century, when the Supreme Court decided United States v. Wong Kim Ark, affirming that citizenship could not be denied based on parents’ national origin or immigration status.
Immigration advocates hailed Boardman’s decision as a protection of fundamental rights. The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and CASA Inc. have indicated they intend to pursue the case to a final judgment on the merits, not just the preliminary injunction stage.
Sources
- NBC News — Judge Deborah Boardman’s 35-page ruling blocking Trump’s August 6 order and citing the Supreme Court’s June decision in Trump v. Barbara
- Al Jazeera — Details of the August order’s specific restrictions and the Supreme Court’s June 30, 2026 ruling affirming birthright citizenship protections
- The Hill — Judge Boardman’s preliminary injunction, the administration’s defense of the order, and White House response calling Boardman an “activist judge”
- SCOTUS Blog — The Supreme Court’s June 30, 2026 decision in Trump v. Barbara with a 6-3 majority upholding birthright citizenship
