Judge Tears Trump Apart in Blistering Ruling

Politics admin September 3, 2026 0 Comments

A federal judge has smacked down President Donald Trump’s latest effort to end birthright citizenship, writing that the administration had “distorted” and “completely misread” the Supreme Court’s June ruling on the matter.

On his first day back in office last year, Trump signed an executive order purporting to eliminate birthright citizenship for children born to non-citizens who were temporarily or unlawfully in the U.S., despite the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that “all persons born… in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” are citizens.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the executive order was illegal, only for Trump to sign two more executive orders in August attempting to strip birthright citizenship from children of “alien enemies” and mothers who fraudulently requested tourist visas intending to give birth in the U.S.

In an at-times exasperated temporarily blocking the new executive order from taking effect, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman wrote that the administration’s claims that the order complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling in June’s Trump v. Barbara rang hollow.

“No presidential executive order can undo what the Supreme Court has done,” wrote Boardman, a Joe Biden appointee.

The government had tried to argue that children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the U.S. are not automatically citizens at birth—only that those children were “not disqualified from birthright citizenship” under the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“Not surprisingly, the defendants do not cite any language from Barbara to support this distorted interpretation of the opinion, and of course there is none,” Boardman wrote. “Though defendants may not like it, the… Court’s conclusion was clear.”

The justices explicitly held that the children at issue were both born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction, meaning they were “citizens at birth,” she added.

The Daily Beast has approached the White House for comment.

The ruling also pointed to the government’s “concerning pattern of behavior” labeling immigrants “enemy aliens” and “terrorists” without providing any solid evidence.

It cited the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador after the government “hastily labeled him an MS-13 member,” Boardman wrote.

She also pointed to cases involving Venezuelans who were arrested, detained, and even deported as alleged members of the Tren de Aragua based solely on flimsy “evidence” such as tattoos, “shoddy affidavits,” and “contradictory testimony.”

Given those examples, it was “no wonder” that parents from certain countries would fear they would be wrongly called enemy aliens, with their children denied citizenship as a result, Boardman added.

Trump had taken the unprecedented step of attending oral arguments in Barbara, where his own appointees seemed deeply skeptical of the government’s position.

After the justices struck down his executive order by a vote of 6-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joining the court’s three liberal justices, the president railed against the decision on social media.

“Does anybody have any idea how much Money and Prestige the United States Supreme Court has cost our Nation with their negative Rulings on Birthright Citizenship and TARIFFS? The answer, TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS!” wrote the 80-year-old.