A federal appeals court blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship this week, setting the Supreme Court up to revisit the case as early as next term.
Two of the three judges on the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals deemed the executive order unconstitutional and upheld a lower court’s decision to halt its enforcement. The appellate court found that Trump’s executive order “contradicts the plain language of the 14th Amendment’s grant of citizenship to ‘all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”
The San Francisco court’s ruling is another legal obstacle for the Trump administration as it seeks to abolish the right to citizenship for any individual born on U.S. soil. After a day-one executive order outlining this policy was signed, the administration was met with a flurry of lawsuits by states and organizations, leading the execution of the policy to be put on pause.
The Trump administration appealed one of these cases to the Supreme Court and found victory in June when the justices ruled to limit the ability of lower courts to halt enforcement of executive orders. However, the justices did not rule on the constitutionality of Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship, meaning the case may find its way back in front of the Supreme Court as early as next term.
Wednesday’s appellate court ruling brings the issue to center stage again and calls for a final decision by the nation’s top court. The legal back-and-forth means the Supreme Court is likely to consider the case again in the future to determine whether Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is constitutional. This could occur as early as next term when the justices reconvene in October.
The Trump administration had not appealed the 9th Court of Appeals’ decision as of Thursday afternoon.
