Two similar rulings were made by judges in Seattle and Maryland.
A third federal judge on Monday blocked President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order from taking effect.
The federal government is looking to narrow the broad recognition of birthright citizenship to exclude children born to illegal immigrants and those only visiting the United States temporarily.
U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante’s ruling in New Hampshire follows two similar rulings by judges in Seattle and Maryland last week.
“I’m going to grant the injunction,” Laplante said at a Feb. 10 hearing, siding with the plaintiff New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, an immigrants’ rights advocacy group.
The judge said he went into the hearing expecting to grant the motion but wanted to allow both sides to defend their positions. While he said he’d heard nothing surprising, he noted that the government’s case was not entirely unfounded in his opinion.
“I’m not persuaded by the defendant’s arguments in this case on this motion. Obviously, I’m not, I’m granting the injunction,” Laplante said. “But I have to say, I’m not offended by them either, as a lawyer or a jurist.”
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The Justice Department’s deputy assistant attorney general, Drew Ensign, argued that the United States “necessarily suffers harm any time that it’s forced to recognize … someone as a citizen against its consent.”
Ensign also held that the court would be infringing on the nation’s sovereignty by dictating who the government must recognize as a citizen.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Cody Wofsy, representing the plaintiff, said the judge should reject that argument.
“I just think it would be extremely detrimental to sort of foundational separation of powers to say that if the president … is out here violating federal statutes, that’s something that courts have no power to reach. That sort of basic principle is something that’s been recognized over and over and over again in all of these cases.”
The judge said he would file the order granting the injunction right away and then follow up with a more detailed explanation of his reasoning on Feb. 11.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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