Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Ban Overturned by U.S. Appeals Court

U.S. federal appeals court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s controversial attempt to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the country to undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders, ruling the move unconstitutional.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in its decision on Wednesday, upheld an earlier block on the executive order issued by a federal judge in Seattle, stating that the policy violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship.

Judge Ronald Gould, who delivered the court’s opinion, emphasized that the lower court acted within its legal discretion to issue a nationwide injunction, not as judicial overreach but as a necessary measure to ensure uniform protection of rights across all states.

“Restricting the injunction to one state would have left individuals vulnerable elsewhere,” Gould noted, adding that inconsistent application of citizenship laws would create legal chaos as families moved between states.

Trump’s order, issued during his presidency, sought to reinterpret the long-standing constitutional principle by denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their parents were in the country without legal status or on temporary stays. Legal analysts described the order as a radical shift in immigration policy and a direct challenge to constitutional precedent.

While the Supreme Court recently ruled that federal judges had likely overstepped by issuing sweeping injunctions in unrelated cases, it sidestepped the core issue of Trump’s birthright order, focusing only on judicial scope a distinction Trump inaccurately claimed as a victory.

The latest ruling, however, directly addresses the constitutional implications and strikes down the executive order in clear terms. The appeals court affirmed that any attempt to deny citizenship on the basis of parental status contradicts both the language and the intent of the 14th Amendment.

In a separate development, a federal judge earlier this month granted class-action status to children who would be impacted by the policy and ordered a preliminary suspension of the order, further delaying any enforcement as litigation proceeds.

This ruling marks another legal defeat for Trump’s immigration agenda and reaffirms the judiciary’s role in defending constitutionally guaranteed rights.