Trump administration appeals Maryland judge's ruling blocking birthright citizenship order

[February 12, 2025]  By MIKE CATALINI

President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday said it's appealing a Maryland federal judge's ruling blocking the president's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for people whose parents are not legally in the country.

In a brief filing, the administration's attorneys said they were appealing to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. It's the second such appeal the administration has sought since Trump's executive order was blocked in court.

The government's appeal stems from U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman's grant of a preliminary injunction last week in a case brought by immigrant rights groups and expectant mothers in Maryland. Boardman said at the time her court would not become the first in the country to endorse the president's order, calling citizenship a “precious right” granted by the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Tuesday's appeal is the latest volley over the president's birthright citizenship order, which has generated at least nine lawsuits nationwide, including suits brought by 22 states.

On Monday, a federal judge in New Hampshire in a similar lawsuit said from the bench that he wasn't convinced by the administration's arguments and issued a preliminary injunction. It applies to the plaintiffs, immigrant rights groups with members who are pregnant, and others within the court's jurisdiction.

And last week, a Seattle-based federal judge ordered a block of the president's order, which the administration also appealed.

The lawsuits in the three cases revolve around the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which held that Scott, an enslaved man, wasn’t a citizen despite having lived in a state where slavery was outlawed.

 In this Sept. 16, 2015, photo, a woman in Sullivan City, Texas, who said she entered the country illegally, walks with her daughter who was born in the United States, but was denied a birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

The amendment holds that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The Trump administration, aiming to curtail unlawful immigration, has asserted that noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and their children born in the U.S. are not entitled to citizenship.

In 1898, in a case known as United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the U.S. Supreme Court found the only children who did not automatically receive U.S. citizenship upon being born on U.S. soil were children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government; enemies present in the U.S. during hostile occupation; those born on foreign ships; and those born to members of sovereign Native American tribes.

The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship, known as the principle of jus soli, or “right of the soil,” is applied. Most are in the Americas and Canada and Mexico are among them.

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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.

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