newsletter 08/07/25

Federal Court Grants Class-wide Preliminary Injunction Against Birthright Citizenship Executive Order

This is a copy of the cover of the U.S. Constitution.

We are thrilled that today U.S. District Court Judge Deborah L. Boardman granted our motion to certify a class of all children who would have been denied citizenship under President Trump’s Executive Order purporting to limit birthright citizenship AND issued a preliminary injunction applicable to the class nationwide. The new preliminary injunction bars enforcement of the Executive Order to a class of all children affected by the Executive Order who have been born or will be born in the United States after February 19, 2025—the date the Executive Order was scheduled to take effect—regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Today’s rulings were the result of the amended class complaint and motion for class certification we filed within hours of the Supreme Court’s decision limiting the universal injunction we had previously obtained. This is the second class-wide injunction to be granted by a federal judge, but it is the first to do so after officially certifying the class.

In issuing the class-wide preliminary injunction, Judge Boardman wrote: “The Court reaffirms here its prior finding that ‘[t]he Executive Order flouts the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, conflicts with binding Supreme Court precedent, and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship.’”

Following the Supreme Court’s admonition not to issue an injunction “broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff,” Judge Boardman made clear that she was entering the preliminary injunction “as to the entire class—which includes all children in the United States subject to the Executive Order—because such an injunction is the only way to ‘provide complete relief to’ the class.”

We look forward to continuing to protect the cherished right to birthright citizenship that the Constitution provides. You can read the Court’s opinion on class certification here and the opinion on the preliminary injunction here.

As always, thank you for the financial support that makes this work possible, and please be on the lookout for our Annual Report coming in the next few weeks!