A Federal Judge Blocked Trump's Second Birthright Citizenship Order, Calling the Supreme Court's June Ruling 'the Law of the Land'

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked President Donald Trump's second attempt to narrow birthright citizenship, ruling that the Supreme Court already settled the question in June and that the White House does not get to relitigate it through a new executive order.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against the order Trump signed on August 6, which directed federal agencies to withhold recognition of citizenship for children born in the United States if either parent is an "alien enemy," a foreign government employee, or engaged in what the administration calls birth tourism. Boardman found that the plaintiffs, certified as a class, were likely to win on the merits under the 14th Amendment.

"The 2026 Executive Order is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth," Boardman wrote. "This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President's most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them."

Notably, Boardman declined to work through the individual carve-outs the administration wrote into the August order. She treated the Supreme Court's June decision striking down Trump's first, broader order as controlling and said the earlier ruling is the law of the land. That is a narrower path than a full constitutional analysis of each exception, and it leaves the government arguing that the justices never reached the specific categories the new order describes.

Justice Department lawyers had told the court that the June ruling only established that children of temporary or undocumented immigrants are not disqualified from birthright citizenship, and that it said nothing about children of people the administration designates as alien enemies — a label it has applied to members of drug cartels it has named as terrorist organizations. The government also pointed to long-recognized exceptions for the children of accredited foreign diplomats.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis responded within hours. "This is just another ruling from an activist judge appointed by Biden attempting to thwart President Trump's commonsense agenda," she said in a statement. "The birthright citizenship executive order is consistent with the holdings and analysis set forth by the Supreme Court."

Boardman did allow agencies to keep drafting internal guidance on how they would implement the policy if it survives appeal, which keeps the machinery in place without letting it operate. An appeal to the Fourth Circuit is expected, and both sides have signaled they see this ending at the Supreme Court for a second time in roughly a year.

The practical effect for now is that hospitals, the State Department and the Social Security Administration continue issuing documents as they did before August 6. Immigration attorneys had reported confusion at passport counters in the weeks after the order, with parents asked for proof of their own status before a child's application would move.