By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday accused Donald Trump of ignoring the rule of law for political and personal gain as he declared an executive order that the Republican president signed seeking to curtail birthright citizenship to be unconstitutional.
There was applause in the courtroom after U.S. District Judge John Coughenour extended an order he had issued two weeks ago temporarily blocking Trump’s order from being implemented into a nationwide injunction lasting indefinitely.
“It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” said Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan. “The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.”
Trump’s administration is expected to appeal the judge’s decision. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge’s ruling came in a lawsuit by the Democratic-led states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon and several pregnant women who argued that Trump’s order violates a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.
Trump’s order directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States after Feb. 19 if neither their mother nor father is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Trump signed this order, part of his sweeping hardline immigration policies, on his first day back in office on Jan. 20.
Coughenour’s nationwide preliminary injunction is one of two issued by federal judges so far blocking Trump’s administration from implementing the order.
A federal judge in Maryland issued a similar injunction on Wednesday, and judges in Boston and New Hampshire are set on Friday and Monday to consider whether to do the same at the request of Democratic-led states and immigrant rights advocates.
Drew Ensign, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department, said the plaintiffs were misreading a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1898 in the case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which long has been interpreted as guaranteeing the right to birthright citizenship. Their reading of the 14th Amendment’s protections were “demonstrably and unequivocally incorrect,” Ensign said.
But Coughenour during the brief hearing said the plaintiffs were right and that “no amount of policy debate can change that.”
The judge said Trump’s administration has sought to deprive children born on U.S. soil of their fundamental right to citizenship by cloaking what was effectively a constitutional amendment in an executive order signed by Trump.
“There are moments in the world’s history where people look back and ask, ‘Where were the lawyers, where were the judges?” Coughenour said. “In these moments, the rule of law becomes especially vulnerable. I refuse to let that beacon go dark today.”
The judge was similarly blunt on January 23 when he temporarily blocked Trump’s action.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour said at that time.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham and Alexia Garamfalvi)
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