US Judge blocks Donald Trump's birthright order after Supreme Court ruling _ BBC News

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00:00A federal judge in New Hampshire has blocked President Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship,

00:06reviving the legal battle over the administration's efforts to challenge the long-standing law.

00:11Judge Joseph LaPlante said a lawsuit challenging the president's executive order can move forward as a class action.

00:18He said his decision would apply nationwide to babies who've been affected by President Trump's policy.

00:24The U.S. Constitution sets out that people born in the U.S. are automatically citizens.

00:30The ruling tests lower court's abilities to issue nationwide decisions

00:34after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state and local judges could not block federal policies.

00:41The civil rights group behind the case had wanted the class to include some adults too,

00:45but their lawyers say the slightly narrower scope doesn't make a difference.

00:50Our North America correspondent Arunade Mukherjee has the latest.

00:54Well, this is important because what this does is potentially opens the gates to further legal battles

00:59when it comes to the contentious issue of birthright citizenship here in the U.S.

01:03Now, what you have here is a federal judge from New Hampshire who essentially has now ruled

01:08to block the ability of the Trump administration in enforcing an executive order

01:12which denies birthright citizenship to babies born in the U.S.,

01:16to undocumented parents and foreign visitors.

01:18Why this is also important is because just a few weeks ago the Supreme Court had ruled

01:23limiting the ability of lower court judges from blocking presidential orders from being enforced across the country.

01:32Now, the only way to have challenged this and the only legal avenue that was available

01:35was through class action lawsuits, which is what we see happening over here.

01:39Now, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed this,

01:44and it is this case which has been seen as a class action lawsuit on which the federal judge has now ruled.

01:50The argument that's been given by the American Civil Liberties Union essentially is that

01:54if you deny birthright citizenship to these babies, well, then that is unconstitutional

01:59because the American Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.

02:03Now, that is where things stand.

02:05But the White House, certainly not happy with the sequence of events.

02:09In fact, in a statement, they have challenged the validity of the judge's ruling,

02:14and I just want to read out some of the operative parts of their statement, saying,

02:17Today's decision is an obvious and unlawful attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's clear order against universal relief.

02:24The judge's decision disregards the rule of law by abusing class action certification procedures.

02:30They also go on to suggest that the Trump administration will be fighting vigorously

02:34against the attempts of these rogue district court judges to impede policies President Trump was elected to implement.

02:43So, given these kind of strong statements, this is certainly an issue which continues to simmer.