Judge Declines Immediate Block on Trump’s New Birthright-Citizenship Order

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman on Friday refused to issue a temporary restraining order against President Trump’s Aug. 6 follow-on executive order limiting which children born in the United States receive citizenship documents. Boardman, a Biden appointee sitting in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the existing complaint in CASA Inc. v. Trump never mentioned the 2026 order, so she could not enjoin it on that pleading. She allowed the plaintiffs to supplement the complaint and set a fast briefing schedule. She called the new directive “unprecedented” and said it “tries to strike out exceptions to birthright citizenship with the stroke of a pen.” The order remains in effect for now. Federal agencies are due to issue implementing guidance by Sept. 5.

The Supreme Court on June 30 struck down Trump’s first-day-in-office order, Executive Order 14160, in Trump v. Barbara, 6–3. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment and 8 U.S.C. § 1401. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented. The administration did not file a timely rehearing petition. On Aug. 6 Trump signed two new orders: Executive Order 14418, “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” and Executive Order 14419, “Ending Birth Tourism.” The White House said 14418 identifies categories of children of aliens who, in the administration’s reading of Barbara, fall outside birthright citizenship because an “extraterritorial fiction” applies. Agencies are directed not to issue or accept citizenship documents when neither parent is a citizen and specified conditions are met, including a parent who is an “alien enemy” (members of designated foreign terrorist organizations or specially designated global terrorists), certain foreign-government employees, fraud, commercial birth-tourism or surrogacy arrangements, and births in U.S. territories or territorial waters where statute does not confer citizenship. The companion order defines birth tourism as entry on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth and directs State and Homeland Security to halt that practice. Stephen Miller said at the signing that birth tourism was “hereby banned.” Trump called the June ruling “very unfortunate.”

Boardman had blocked the 2025 order nationwide in February 2025 and later certified a class. Immigrant-rights groups, including CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, moved after Aug. 6 to stop the new orders. Justice Department lawyers argued the court should wait for the Sept. 5 guidance because agencies had not yet published how the directive would work. Boardman was skeptical of delay and asked where in the Supreme Court’s opinion “is there any reference to an exception for birthright citizenship for birth tourism?” Plaintiffs in New Hampshire have asked Judge Joseph Laplante for similar relief in the Barbara case, arguing the new orders go beyond the diplomat exception the Court restated. The White House says the August orders are consistent with Barbara. Friday’s denial is not a ruling on constitutionality. It is a pleading decision: the 2025 complaint did not challenge the 2026 text, so no TRO issued on that complaint. An amended filing and a new injunction motion are next. Agency rules are due Sept. 5.