Appeals court maintains injunction against Trump birthright order

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to curtail automatic birthright citizenship nationwide as part of his hardline immigration crackdown suffered another legal setback on Friday when a second federal appeals court declined to lift one of the court orders blocking the Republican's executive order.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote rejected the Trump administration's request for an order putting on hold a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland who concluded the order was unconstitutional.

"For well over a century, the federal government has recognized the birthright citizenship of children born in this country to undocumented or non-permanent immigrants," the appeals court's majority said.

It said it was "hard to overstate the confusion and upheaval" that would result from allowing Trump's order to take effect, as it challenged long-standing legal interpretations and practice in ways that could cause "chaos."

The panel's majority included U.S. Circuit Judges Roger Gregory and Pamela Harris, both appointees of Democratic presidents. U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer, an appointee of Republican former President George H.W. Bush, dissented, saying a nationwide injunction was "inappropriate."

It was the second time an appellate court had taken up Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship, whose fate may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Another appeals court last week declined to lift a similar injunction issued by a judge in Seattle. Other judges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have likewise enjoined the order, finding it violates the U.S. Constitution.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump's order, signed on his first day back in the White House on January 20, directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

That order was to apply to children born after February 19, but implementation has been repeatedly blocked by judges at the urging of immigrant rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general.

Among those judges was U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who on February 5 sided with two immigrant rights groups and five pregnant women who argued that their children were at risk of being unconstitutionally denied U.S. citizenship based on their parents' immigration status.

The plaintiffs pointed to the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which has long been understood to recognize that virtually anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

The judge, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, agreed, saying Trump's interpretation of the Constitution has been "resoundingly rejected" by the Supreme Court in the past.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, William Maclean)