·
·
Thursday, 13 August 2026dailybeirut.com
World
Donald Trump signed two executive orders targeting birthright citizenship weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his prior attempt in a 6–3 ruling.
A federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s two newly signed executive orders on birthright citizenship was filed Tuesday in a New Hampshire court, according to Al Jazeera. The challenge comes just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier effort to restrict automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 against Trump’s previous broader attempt to end birthright citizenship. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that there was “scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view” and emphasized that the framers “extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’.”
One of the new orders seeks to expand narrow existing categories under the 14th Amendment that already exclude some individuals from automatic citizenship. The second directs the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to combat what the administration calls “birth tourism.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Law Caucus, and the Democracy Defenders Fund jointly filed the lawsuit. Amia Trigg, deputy director of litigation at the Legal Defense Fund, stated: “The Supreme Court could not have been more clear: President Trump’s attempt to redefine who is an American citizen through executive action was unconstitutional.”
The new orders instruct federal agencies to deny citizenship documents to children of diplomatic staff and alleged members of terrorist organizations. They also target individuals engaged in “commercial transactions” aimed at securing U.S. births, as well as certain persons born in U.S. territories.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, had previously vowed to challenge the Supreme Court’s ruling. The administration, however, allowed the July deadline to seek reconsideration to pass without action. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh had rejected the notion that restricting birthright citizenship was unconstitutional. Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, said the administration “is just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.” Several Republicans have sought to highlight the issue ahead of November’s midterm elections.
