Birthright Citizenship & National Injunctions in EPIC court fight

On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which instructs federal agencies to withhold recognition of U.S. citizenship from children born after February 19, 2025, whose mothers were unlawfully or only temporarily present and whose fathers were neither citizens nor lawful-permanent residents, thereby narrowing birth-right citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. Immigrant-rights organization CASA, Inc., the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, and seven non-citizen mothers promptly sued in the District of Maryland, contending the order violates both the Citizenship Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act. On February 18, 2025, Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a nationwide preliminary injunction that not only barred enforcement but also forbade agencies from drafting implementation guidance; the Fourth Circuit, over a dissent, refused to stay that relief on February 28. Similar universal injunctions were entered the same month in parallel challenges brought by Washington and New Jersey, leading the Solicitor General to seek emergency stays and a limitation of relief to the named plaintiffs. The Supreme Court consolidated the three applications as Trump v. CASA Inc., No. 24A884, heard argument on May 15, 2025, and now must decide whether nationwide injunctions of this sort exceed federal courts’ Article III power and traditional equitable limits.