Court Rejects Trump’s Request To Reinstate Birthright Citizenship Ban

Judges in lower district courts have blocked Trump's executive order since it was announced in January, and the Justice Department filed the emergency motion in an effort to smooth the way for it.

The US Constitution's 14th Amendment, which states that anybody born in the US is a citizen, is being redefined by Trump's order.

It asserts that the privilege only applies to children of citizens and permanent residents, making it one of the most contentious of Trump's executive orders.

A panel of three justices from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, nominated by Trump and former presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, rejected the motion.

In the order, judge Danielle Forrest, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, stated, "The Government has not demonstrated that it is entitled to immediate relief in this case."

She said that the district court had "stymied the implementation of an Executive Branch policy… nationwide for almost three weeks" as the "sole basis" for requesting the emergency.

The situation did not "dictate that we must," she said, adding that "deciding important substantive issues on one week's notice turns our usual decision-making process on its head."

In January, a federal judge temporarily suspended Trump's executive order, which was supposed to take effect on February 19. Since then, the deadline has been extended.

The courts have been increasingly resisting his instructions; so far, roughly a dozen injunctions have been issued out of about 40 lawsuits.

In a different lawsuit, the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court for the first time on Sunday to let him remove the director of a whistleblower protection agency.

As the president strains the boundaries of his executive power and the court pushes back, the Supreme Court—which has three justices appointed by Trump—is poised to play a major role in what some analysts believe is an impending constitutional crisis.

AFP