United States: District Court Retains Nationwide Remedy Barring Implementation of Birthright Citizenship EO

On July 25, a Massachusetts federal district court declined to modify its nationwide injunction barring implementation of President Trump’s January 20 birthright citizenship Executive Order (EO), holding that the nationwide scope of the injunction is necessary to provide complete relief to the plaintiff U.S. states. The injunction is the third nationwide remedy that is currently preventing the U.S. government from implementing the EO. The case is State of New Jersey et al v. Trump et al., 25-cv-10139 (D. Mass.). Plaintiff U.S. states in the case are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The district court decision follows a June 27 Supreme Court decision that limited the authority of federal courts to issue nationwide (or “universal” in the court’s terminology) injunctions, directing courts to issue injunctions only to the extent necessary to provide complete relief to plaintiffs. In response, the nearly 20 plaintiff U.S. states argued to the district court that complete relief from enforcement of the birthright citizenship EO requires a nationwide scope. The court agreed and declined to modify its original nationwide injunction.

The U.S. government is already barred from implementing the birthright citizenship EO pursuant to orders in two separate lawsuits – one is a nationwide class action preliminary injunction issued on July 10 by a New Hampshire federal district court; the other is a nationwide injunction affirmed on July 24 based on the same “complete relief” argument presented in the State of New Jersey case.

It is expected that the U.S. government will appeal the State of New Jersey nationwide injunction to higher courts and will continue to appeal any lower court decisions unfavorable to the government in the various ongoing lawsuits challenging the birthright citizenship EO. As long as any nationwide legal remedy remains in place, the EO cannot be implemented. Regardless of the outcome of the current array of preliminary injunction requests and appeals, the legality of the EO itself will continue to be litigated in the lower courts in the underlying lawsuits.