A federal judge has again barred United States President Donald Trump’s administration from denying citizenship to some babies born in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, on Thursday, July 10, 2025, ruled at a hearing in Concord, New Hampshire, after immigrant rights advocates implored him to grant class action status to a lawsuit they filed seeking to represent any children whose citizenship status would be threatened by the implementation of Trump’s executive order curtailing automatic birthright citizenship.
The ruling is far from the last word in the legal battle over Trump’s order, which he signed in January on his first day back in office.
The judge paused his ruling for seven days to give the Trump administration time to appeal, which a Justice Department lawyer at the hearing indicated would certainly happen.
Laplante, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, agreed the plaintiffs could provisionally proceed as a class, allowing him to issue a fresh judicial order blocking implementation of the Republican president’s policy nationally.
Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union had urged him to do so after the Supreme Court on June 27 issued a 6-3 ruling narrowing three nationwide injunctions issued by judges in separate challenges to Trump’s directive.
The Supreme Court’s decision meant babies born in some parts of the United States to parents who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents risked being denied citizenship and becoming subject to deportation. But the ruling contained an exception for class action lawsuits that seek relief on behalf of a group of similarly situated people nationwide.
Laplante, who had already in a related case concluded Trump’s order was unconstitutional, said the question of whether to issue an injunction was “not a close call,” as children could be deprived of citizenship by Trump’s order, which was set to take effect on July 27 following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He said: “That’s irreparable harm, citizenship alone.
“It is the greatest privilege that exists in the world.”
ACLU attorney Cody Wofsy hailed the decision, telling reporters that the Supreme Court’s ruling had sparked “concern, confusion and fear” among migrant families whose babies would be affected by Trump’s order.
“This is going to protect every single child throughout the country from this lawless, unconstitutional, cruel executive order,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields in a statement called the ruling “an obvious and unlawful attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s clear order against universal relief.”
