Trump Birthright Order Is Left Frozen by Appeals Court (1)

President Donald Trump on Friday lost a bid to halt a federal court’s pause on his executive order limiting birthright citizenship.

The government “has not shown an entitlement to a stay pending appeal,” the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in a Friday order denying the president’s motion to stay the lower court’s nationwide preliminary injunction.

Under Trump’s order, US-born children of immigrants who entered the country illegally or have temporary legal status aren’t granted automatic citizenship. A federal judge in Maryland blocked the order nationwide on Feb. 5, finding there’s a strong likelihood the action violates the US Constitution. Trump’s birthright order is facing challenges in other districts, including in Washington and Massachusetts.

The government appealed the sweeping nationwide injunction, arguing the court shouldn’t pause shouldn’t extend to people beyond the plaintiffs in the suit.

But the government failed to show that the district court abused its discretion in halting the executive order nationwide, the Fourth Circuit said. An injunction limited to the parties in the suit would be unworkable in practice and cause inequitable treatment “in an area in which uniformity is needed.”

The public interest favors a wide-reaching preliminary injunction, given the “confusion and upheaval” that will accompany the executive order,” the circuit court said. “The status quo in this case is clear, and adding a bit more time to its century-plus pedigree will not impose any substantial harm on the government,” the Fourth Circuit wrote.

Judge Paul V. Niemeyer said in a dissent that the government’s request to limit the injunction to the parties in the suit should be granted, given the many other cases pending in districts across the country. “It is simply presumptuous and jurisdictionally messy” for one court to issue a sweeping injunction that includes the jurisdiction of other federal courts considering the same issue, Niemeyer said.

Judge Pamela A. Harris and Roger L. Gregory joined the majority opinion.

Georgetown University Law Center and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project represent the plaintiffs challenging the order.

The case is CASA Inc. v. Trump, 4th Cir., No. 25-01153, 2/28/25.