Overview

• U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Thursday that a class-action lawsuit can proceed on behalf of every U.S.-born infant at risk under President Trump’s January executive order and issued a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement.
• The January 20 order sought to strip citizenship from children born to parents residing unlawfully or temporarily in the United States and had been stopped by several nationwide injunctions before reaching the Supreme Court.
• On June 27, the Supreme Court limited lower courts’ authority to issue universal injunctions but preserved the option to seek broad relief through class-action lawsuits, prompting new filings by the ACLU and state attorneys general.
• Advocates warn that if allowed to take effect, the order could deny citizenship to more than 150,000 newborns annually, exposing families to statelessness, loss of federal benefits and potential detention.
• The administration has seven days to appeal Judge Laplante’s decision as parallel motions and briefs are filed in other federal courts exploring the scope of injunctions under the Supreme Court’s framework.