A Biden-appointed federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to narrow birthright citizenship, halting an executive order aimed in part at stopping foreigners from using “birth tourism” to obtain American citizenship for their children.
As reported by ZeroHedge, U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against Trump’s August 6 executive order, titled “Ending Birth Tourism and Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”
Boardman, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, concluded that the order was “almost certainly unconstitutional” as applied to a previously certified class of children covered by litigation over Trump’s earlier citizenship policy.
“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Boardman wrote, maintaining that the children covered by the class are citizens at birth and that a presidential executive order cannot reverse the Supreme Court’s judgment.
Trump’s latest directive was narrower than his original January 2025 executive order. The administration sought to deny automatic citizenship in specific circumstances, including children born to certain “alien enemies,” individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments, and people who entered the United States as part of what the administration characterized as a commercial scheme to obtain citizenship through childbirth.
The White House has argued that birth tourism cheapens American citizenship and allows wealthy foreign nationals to exploit the nation’s immigration system. At the August signing, Trump said businesses had developed around the practice, while adviser Stephen Miller described birth tourism as a fraud against the American people.
The latest court fight follows a June Supreme Court ruling rejecting the administration’s broader attempt to restrict automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors. Boardman interpreted that decision broadly, while the Trump administration argues that its revised order operates within exceptions left open by the Court.
The dispute ultimately centers on the 14th Amendment, which declares that persons born or naturalized in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens. The meaning of that jurisdiction language has again become a major constitutional battleground.
For conservatives, the case raises questions reaching beyond immigration. It concerns whether American citizenship remains a meaningful covenant carrying duties, allegiance, and national identity—or becomes something that can be deliberately obtained through manipulation of immigration rules.
Scripture repeatedly presents civil government as possessing a legitimate responsibility to preserve order and punish wrongdoing. Romans 13 describes governing authorities as charged with administering justice, while biblical teaching also commands equal justice without partiality. Those principles place a serious responsibility on both political leaders and judges: immigration law must be enforced faithfully, but constitutional boundaries must also be respected.
The White House called Boardman’s ruling another decision from an “activist judge” attempting to obstruct Trump’s agenda and maintained that the executive order is consistent with the Supreme Court’s reasoning.
Attorney General Todd Blanche has indicated that the administration intends to continue fighting the issue and could ultimately return to the Supreme Court.
For now, Boardman’s injunction prevents federal agencies from denying or refusing to recognize citizenship documentation for children belonging to the certified class while the litigation continues.
The larger battle over who qualifies for American citizenship—and whether birth tourism can constitutionally be curtailed by executive action—is far from finished.
