Immigrant rights groups moved quickly to try to stop President Trump’s birthright citizenship policy with a class action lawsuit Friday, filed just hours after the Supreme Court dented their previous legal attack.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which announced the lawsuit, said it is intended to close the “gaps” that may have been opened up after the high court ruled against universal injunctions on birthright citizenship.
The justices, in their 6-3 ruling, limited lower courts’ ability to impose universal injunctions, saying they aren’t part of the powers granted by Congress to the district courts. They applied that new ruling to three lower court cases that had issued injunctions against Mr. Trump’s policy limiting recognition of birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants and temporary visitors.
The effect of the ruling was still murky, but advocates said one outcome could be to create a patchwork of rules where a child born in one state would be recognized as an automatic citizen while another child born in a different state would not.
If the class action lawsuit succeeds, it could apply across the board.
“The Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and no procedural ruling will stop us from fighting to uphold that promise,” said Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund.
The high court, in its ruling, said universal injunctions stretched judges’ power too far, granting a single district judge in one corner of the country the power to halt a president’s actions for everyone. That goes well beyond the parties involved in the case.
But the justices said challengers have other tools, and named the class action as a key one.
Under a class action, the challengers have to define the scope of the class, or people who are affected by the policy at issue, and who would be granted relief by any eventual court ruling.
The new lawsuit defines the class as anyone born after Feb. 20, 2025, when Mr. Trump’s birthright policy was supposed to take effect. It applies to babies whose parents were not citizens or legal permanent residents.
The ACLU said more than 200,000 children are born each year who would fall under those rules.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.