ACLU of NH joins class-action lawsuit over birthright citizenship
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
The American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire has joined a class-action lawsuit over President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order.
The lawsuit comes as a response to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, which said judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, which are legal orders issued by courts.
“The judges have tried to seize the Executive Branch’s power, and they cannot do that. No longer,” said Pam Bondi, United States Attorney General.
The ACLU is suing the Trump administration, saying it is flouting the Constitution, congressional intent and longstanding Supreme Court precedent. Those accusations relate to Trump’s executive order that would remove the guarantee of U.S. citizenship for children born in the U.S. by parents who are in the country illegally.
A district judge had previously blocked the president’s order to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.
On Friday, the Supreme Court did not make a ruling on whether Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is constitutional.
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Changes to birthright citizenship remain blocked nationwide, for now.
Trump on Friday called the court’s decision “amazing,” and a “monumental victory for the Constitution.”
In a news release, the ACLU said, in part, “This new case seeks protection for all families in the country, filling the gaps that may be left by the existing litigation.”
“No politician can ever decide who among those born in our country is worthy of citizenship — and we will keep fighting to ensure that every child born in the United States has their right to citizenship protected,” the ACLU said in a statement.
The ACLU was not available for an interview to talk further about its lawsuit Friday night.
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Daniel Pi, an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law, discussed the impacts on people who live in states that file lawsuit versus states that do not.
“They have to be a part of the lawsuit. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to get a lawyer and they have to be in court. In a lot of these cases, it’s the states that are suing the federal government,” Pi said. “If you are a citizen in a state and the state is suing the federal government, then it’s suing the federal government on behalf of all of the residents of that state.”
