A federal appeals court on Friday dealt a major blow to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, halting his attempt to restrict automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
A three-judge panel from the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction against Trump’s January executive order, which sought to narrow the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship — the principle that anyone born in the United States becomes a citizen regardless of parental status, according to The Hill.
In a sharply worded 100-page opinion, the court warned against dismantling a foundation of American law. “The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the judges wrote.
The decision marks the fifth federal ruling since June blocking or overturning the order, signaling near-unanimous judicial skepticism toward the policy. For Trump, the setback underscores the legal headwinds confronting his broader efforts to reshape immigration through executive action.
Citing grim precedents, the court drew parallels to earlier attempts to restrict citizenship. “Our nation’s history of efforts to restrict birthright citizenship — from Dred Scott in the decade before the Civil War to the attempted justification for the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act in Wong Kim Ark — has not been a proud one,” the lead judge noted.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta hailed the ruling as a constitutional victory. “Today’s decision upholds a nationwide injunction in our lawsuit challenging the President’s attempt to end, with the stroke of a pen, the constitutional right to birthright citizenship,” Bonta said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We will continue to oppose this executive order until the President’s attempt to unmake the Constitution is blocked completely.”
Today’s decision upholds a nationwide injunction in our lawsuit challenging the President’s attempt to end, with the stroke of a pen, the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.
We will continue to oppose this executive order until the President’s attempt to unmake the… pic.twitter.com/t8pznCHIAc
— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) October 3, 2025
California is one of 20 states that joined the legal challenge.
Although many conservatives don’t expect birthright citizenship to be overturned for those in the country illegally, at least one researcher thinks there’s a better chance than most are giving it.
https://twitter.com/AmySwearer/status/1881727014564213055
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the matter, setting the stage for what could become a landmark test of presidential power and the durability of one of the nation’s most fundamental guarantees.
