ACLU files class-action lawsuit against Trump’s birthright citizenship order

A coalition of activist groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration, seeking to block enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU affiliates in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, the Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus, and Democracy Defenders Fund. These same groups had previously filed a similar challenge in January on behalf of families whose children, born on US soil, would be denied citizenship under the executive order. That earlier case resulted in court protection for those plaintiffs and is currently pending before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, per Fox News.

The new lawsuit aims to protect birthright citizenship for all those it may apply to in the country if the suit is successful.

The filing comes in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling Friday that allowed partial enforcement of the executive order. In a 6–3 decision, the court held that lower courts may not issue nationwide injunctions against federal policies unless such relief is necessary to fully protect the plaintiffs in the case. The ruling did not determine the legality of Trump’s order but permits it to take effect in parts of the country while legal proceedings continue.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, clarified that the court did not address whether the order violates the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause or the Nationality Act.

"The applications do not raise — and thus we do not address — the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act," Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion. "The issue before us is one of remedy: whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions."

"A universal injunction can be justified only as an exercise of equitable authority, yet Congress has granted federal courts no such power," she added.

The ACLU’s latest lawsuit said that birthright citizenship is "America’s most fundamental promise" and warns that the executive order threatens to create "a permanent, multigenerational subclass" of children denied legal status.

“Every court to have looked at this cruel order agrees that it is unconstitutional,” argued Cody Wofsy, lead attorney in the lawsuit. “The Supreme Court’s decision did not remotely suggest otherwise, and we are fighting to make sure President Trump cannot trample on the citizenship rights of a single child.”