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A US federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order limiting who qualifies for birthright citizenship.
The move thwarts President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to restrict the constitutional right, which comes after the US supreme court rejected his previous effort, AFP reported.
US district judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction following an appeal by rights groups who challenged Trump’s executive order from 6 August targeting what he termed “birth tourism”.
“The supreme court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ’citizens at birth’,” Boardman wrote in her 35-page ruling, adding the president’s August order “is almost certainly unconstitutional”.
“When it comes to attacking birthright citizenship, the Trump administration has lost before this court, lost before the supreme court, and lost again today,” said Shana Khader, legal director at We Are CASA, a Maryland-based group.
Trump’s fresh executive order was aimed at those who he alleges enter the country under the guise of tourism while actually intending to give birth.
The president’s efforts to curb birthright citizenship are part of his wider campaign to limit immigration, which includes expelling millions of undocumented migrants and removing deportation protections from nationals of more than a dozen countries.
House Democrats rejected a constitutional amendment proposed by Republicans to ensure the size of the supreme court is permanently capped at nine justices. The proposal, a Republican effort to make the supreme court a campaign issue ahead of the November midterms, failed 212-206.
House Democratic lawmakers introduced a war powers resolution seeking to stop the Trump administration’s boat strikes. Gregory W Meeks, Adam Smith, Jim Himes and Bennie G Thompson said people have been killed “without due process” in attacks never authorized by Congress.
Senator Richard Blumenthal pushed back against a statement from the US Postal Service about its new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections. “‘Just trust us’ is not acceptable,” he said.
Donald Trump celebrated the news that Apple had fulfilled his request to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for Maps app users in the US following an executive order that came amid rising trade tensions between the US and Canada.
The Pentagon introduced guidelines for the mandatory new testosterone deficiency screening required for service members age 30 and older, a policy introduced by Pete Hegseth last month.
Trump – claiming that the US has control over the strait of Hormuz despite escalating conflict with Iran and extensive evidence to the contrary – has floated the idea of naming the critical waterway “TRUMP STRAIT”.
