Appeals court finds Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship unconstitutional, upholds block

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trumps order seeking to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional affirming a lowercourt decision that blocked its enforcement nationwideThe ruling from a threejudge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals comes after Trumps plan was also blocked by a federal judge in New Hampshire It brings the issue one step closer to coming back quickly before the Supreme CourtThe 9th Circuit decision keeps a block on the Trump administration enforcing the order that would deny citizenship to children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarilyThe district court correctly concluded that the Executive Orders proposed interpretation denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States is unconstitutional We fully agree the majority wroteThe 21 ruling keeps in place a decision from US District Judge John C Coughenour in Seattle who blocked Trumps effort to end birthright citizenship and decried what he described as the administrations attempt to ignore the Constitution for political gainThe White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking commentThe Supreme Court has since restricted the power of lower court judges to issue orders that affect the whole country known as nationwide injunctionsBut the 9th Circuit majority found that the case fell under one of the exceptions left open by the justices The case was filed by a group of states who argued that they need a nationwide order to prevent the problems that would be caused by birthright citizenship only being the law in half of the countryWe conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the States complete relief Judge Michael Hawkins and Ronald Gould both appointed by President Bill Clinton wroteJudge Patrick Bumatay who was appointed by Trump dissented He found that the states dont have the legal right or standing to sue We should approach any request for universal relief with good faith skepticism mindful that the invocation of complete relief isnt a backdoor to universal injunctions he wroteBumatay did not weigh in on whether ending birthright citizenship would be constitutionalThe Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment says that all people born or naturalized in the United States and subject to US jurisdiction are citizensJustice Department attorneys argue that the phrase subject to United States jurisdiction in the amendment means that citizenship isnt automatically conferred to children based on their birth location aloneThe states Washington Arizona Illinois and Oregon argue that ignores the plain language of the Citizenship Clause as well as a landmark birthright citizenship case in 1898 where the Supreme Court found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soilTrumps order asserts that a child born in the US is not a citizen if the mother does not have legal immigration status or is in the country legally but temporarily and the father is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident At least nine lawsuits challenging the order have been filed around the USThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever