Trump faces lawsuit over push to limit birthright citizenship

What the report says

Rights groups have filed a new legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s latest effort to narrow birthright citizenship in the United States, according to Al Jazeera. The case was filed Tuesday in federal court in New Hampshire, following Trump’s signing of two executive orders days earlier that sought to tighten how the practice is applied and to curb what his administration calls “birth tourism.”

The plaintiffs include the ACLU, the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Law Caucus and the Democracy Defenders Fund. They argue that Trump’s new orders conflict with the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment and with the Supreme Court’s June decision that blocked his earlier attempt to end birthright citizenship more broadly. The groups say the administration is trying to reopen an issue the court has already rejected.

Al Jazeera reported that the new order would direct federal agencies to deny citizenship documents in certain cases, including to children of some diplomatic staff, alleged members of “terrorist organisations,” people involved in arrangements to secure a US birth, and some people born in US territories. Trump’s team has previously argued that birthright citizenship has been interpreted too broadly since the 1868 amendment was adopted, but the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said there was little evidence for that reading.

The renewed push comes as some Republicans continue to make birthright citizenship a political issue ahead of the November midterms. Legal observers say the new lawsuit could test how far the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling reaches, though it is not yet clear whether the justices would hear the case again.