By: Teo Popescu
June 30, 2025 - KUOW
Washington, Oregon, and 20 other states sued the Trump administration over the birthright citizenship ban earlier this year. Federal judges issued nationwide injunctions, blocking Trump’s ban from taking effect across the United States.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to restrict federal judges’ authority to grant nationwide injunctions ・stating that injunctions should only be broad enough to directly cover plaintiffs in a lawsuit.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the citizenship ban. Until that happens, the lower courts must decide how to reconfigure their injunctions to meet the Supreme Court's new ruling. For the 28 states that did not sue Trump's administration over the ban, this could mean Trump's birthright citizenship ban goes into effect on July 27.
The Supreme Court left open an alternative pathway for those seeking to block Trump's ban (and other policies) nationwide: a class-action lawsuit. Within hours of the Supreme Court's ruling, advocacy groups behind one of the legal challenges to Trump's ban reconfigured their lawsuit, seeking class-action status to represent all pregnant people and children born to families without legal status across the United States. To date, this is one of two lawsuits that have sought class-action status following the Supreme Court's ruling. Judges in lower courts will determine if these cases (or any additional class-action lawsuits filed before July 27) merit a nationwide freeze of Trump's birthright citizenship ban.
Trump's birthright citizenship ban would deny citizenship to people born in the United States after February 19, 2025, where the mother is without legal status and the father is not a citizen or permanent resident ・or where the mother is on a temporary visa (like a student, work or travel visa), and the father is not a citizen or permanent resident.
Over 4 millionU.S.-born children live with a parent without legal status; 1.8 million live in households where both parents lack legal status. Children born into the latter group after July 27 may be at risk of being stateless.