President Donald Trump's administration was handed another loss Thursday in its bid to end birthright citizenship.
Judge Joseph Laplante of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire issued a preliminary injunction blocking the executive order Trump signed in February that attempted to end birthright citizenship altogether. The court also certified a protected class of people to whom the order applies. That class consists of newborns born on or after Feb. 20, 2025, to parents who are in the United States either illegally or temporarily.
The order follows a roadmap laid out by the Supreme Court in another case where it said lower courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions. Instead, the Supreme Court said lower courts can only block the implementation of a federal law or policy through the class action process.
"The court...has no difficulty concluding that the rapid adoption by executive order, without legislation and the attending national debate, of a new government policy of highly questionable constitutionality that would deny citizenship to many thousands of individuals previously granted citizenship under an indisputably longstanding policy, constitutes irreparable harm, and that all class representatives could suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction," Judge Laplante's order reads.
The Trump administration previously described the Supreme Court's decision as a victory because it prevented lower courts from unilaterally blocking its policies.
Laplante gave the administration seven days to appeal the order.
The panel on CNN's "The Arena with Kasie Hunt" discussed the impact of the ruling.
"This is 100% what the Supreme Court willed into existence," CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams noted. "Before anybody starts with arguments about how popular Donald Trump is or how judges are undermining his actions, this is what the court wanted."
You can watch the discussion here.