US appeals court rejects Trump bid to reinstate birthright citizenship order News
© WikiMedia (Ali Shaker / VOA)
US appeals court rejects Trump bid to reinstate birthright citizenship order

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined Tuesday to overturn a lower court’s injunction that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order abrogating birthright citizenship. The rejection stated that the federal government had not made a “strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits,” as required by law.

Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest, a Trump appointee, concurred with the opinion. She found the government’s sole basis for emergency relief was that the lower court had “stymied implementation of an Executive Branch policy,” and that this argument alone was insufficient for emergencies. Neither opinion addressed the merits of the executive order or interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause.

This was the first time an appellate court has weighed in on Trump’s birthright citizenship order. Other appeals are underway as three other federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have similarly blocked the order. Judge John Coughenour, who ruled against Trump prior to this appeal, found there was a strong likelihood that the executive order violates the 14th Amendment and immigration laws. But now following the appellate court’s decision, the Trump administration has their first chance of being heard on this issue before the Supreme Court.

The US Supreme Court has clear precedent on the issue of birthright citizenship which is more than 125 years old. In 1898, the court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the 14th Amendment guaranteed birthright citizenship regardless of the immigration status of the child’s parents. Trump’s executive order seeks to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the US to parents without citizenship or permanent status. Judge Coughenour, in his ruling, claimed the order was “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Longstanding precedent, however, has been overturned by the Supreme Court before, as it was in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 (overturning the nearly 50-year abortion rights precedent in Roe v. Wade) and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in 2024 (overturning the 40-year old Chevron deference to executive agencies).

THIS DAY @ LAW

Mexican Army kills over 400 Texas prisoners of war

The Mexican army executed more than 400 Texian prisoners of war on March 27, 1836, during the Texas Revolution, in an event that would become known as the Goliad Massacre. A decree passed in December 1835 allowed Mexican soldiers under General Antonio López de Santa Anna to shoot any foreigners in rebellion. Texian Colonel James Fannin and his men surrendered to the Mexican government under the expectation that they would be treated as prisoners of war, but they were executed regardless, engendering sympathy (and eventual support) from the neighboring United States. Learn more about the Goliad Massacre.

Khrushchev becomes USSR leader

On March 27, 1958, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev became the new Premier of the USSR, replacing Joseph Stalin as the Soviet leader. During his rise to power, Khruschev denounced crimes of the Stalinist regime and the "cult of personality" surrounding his predecessor. While in office as Soviet Premier, Khruschev oversaw some of the most famous and influential events of the Cold War: the launch of Sputnik, the Sino-Soviet split, the U-2 Spy Plan incident, and finally the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, which led to his ouster by reactionary elements the following year. The conspirators forced Khruschev's resignation on October 15, 1964 and replaced him with Leonid Brezhnev.

Read the New York Times obituary of Nikita Khrushchev.

President Andrew Johnson vetoed citizenship for slaves

On March 27, 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill that would later become the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, conferring full US citizenship on all slaves. Read President Johnson's veto letter, transmitted to the US Senate.