A federal judge in Seattle issued a nationwide temporary restraining order on Thursday halting President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship.

Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour stated.

The judge criticized the government’s argument that the 14th Amendment excludes children of undocumented immigrants, asserting, “President Trump and the federal government now seek to impose a modern version of Dred Scott.”

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, joined by Oregon, Illinois, and Arizona, led the lawsuit, arguing that the order would strip citizenship from around 150,000 newborns annually, including 4,000 in Washington. “This is an unconstitutional attempt to redefine what it means to be an American,” Brown said, according to the Seattle Times.

The executive order claims that children born in the U.S. to parents here illegally or temporarily are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. The Trump administration argued that such children are not entitled to citizenship and accused the states of lacking standing to sue.

Coughenour rejected that argument, emphasizing the 14th Amendment’s guarantee, which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens.”

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The judge’s decision is the first in a series of lawsuits nationwide challenging the executive order, setting the stage for a prolonged legal battle likely to reach the Supreme Court.

This is a developing story and will be updated.