Bush-Appointed Judge Steps In To Subvert Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order |

Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Bush-Appointed Judge Steps In To Subvert Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order

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Katelynn Richardson

July 10, 2025 11:17 AM ET

A federal judge issued a new nationwide block Thursday on President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship.

District Court Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee in New Hampshire, sided with immigrant advocacy groups who asked to certify a nationwide class of babies whose citizenship status would be impacted by the order.

His ruling is the first since the Supreme Court’s decision June 27 reining in lower court’s ability to issue nationwide injunctions, which left room for plaintiffs to still file class action lawsuits to block the executive order.

Hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with other left-wing groups like the Democracy Defenders Fund and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed a new class action lawsuit challenging the order.

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested migrants would be “well advised to file promptly class action suits and to request temporary injunctive relief.”

“Improperly threatening children with arrest, detention, and deportation, and forcing them to grow up in fear of immigration enforcement, imposes harms on those children and their parents,” the lawsuit argued. “That fear is multiplied for parents who face further concern that their baby’s removal would be to a country where their lives or freedom would be in danger.”

Laplante found the groups are likely to succeed in challenging the order and suffer “irreparable harm” if it is not blocked in the meantime.

“The preliminary injunction is just not a close call to the court,” Laplante said during the hearing, according to CNN. “The deprivation of US citizenship and an abrupt change of policy that was longstanding … that’s irreparable harm.”

Laplante paused his order for seven days to provide time for the Trump administration to appeal.

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