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A federal judge has once again blocked Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to redefine the constitution’s birthright citizenship clause, delivering a powerful rebuke from the bench to accuse the president of treating the rule of law as an “impediment to his policy goals.”
District Judge John C. Coughenour, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday that blocks the order from taking effect nationally while the legal case plays out in Washington state.
“It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” Coughenour said from the bench in a Seattle courtroom, according to The Seattle Times.
“The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” he added. “In this courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow.”
Judge Coughenour accused the president of trying to alter the 14th Amendment “under the guise of an executive order.”
“If the government wants to change the exceptional grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself,” he added. “Because the president’s order attempts to circumvent this process, it is clearly unconstitutional.”
Coughenour — who is overseeing one of several lawsuits filed in courts across the country seeking to overturn the president’s order — had issued a temporary injunction last month, days after Trump signed the executive order. That injunction expired this week.
The case in Coughenour’s court stems from a legal challenge from attorneys general in four states, among several lawsuits filed by state officials, civil rights groups and pregnant women in the wake of Trump’s order.
On Wednesday, a second federal judge struck down the order, granting a temporary restraining order following a lawsuit from a group of 16 expecting immigrant mothers.
Trump’s order “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth” and likely violates Supreme Court precedent, which “has resoundingly rejected” the president’s characterization of the 14th Amendment, Maryland District Judge Deborah L. Boardman said.
Last month, Coughenour told the court that he “can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is.”
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said.
The 14th Amendment was “specifically enshrined” to “ensure that no one — not even the President — could deny children born in America their rightful place as citizens,” according to a separate lawsuit from a coalition of civil rights groups representing immigrant mothers.
If Trump’s order is allowed to go into effect, people born in the United States could be denied passports and Social Security numbers, jeopardizing their ability to travel and work within the country and receive government benefits and protections afforded to citizens.
The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order seeks to deny citizenship to newborn children in the United States if their parents are “unlawfully” present or have “lawful but temporary” status in the country.
Read More: Judge accuses Trump of ‘ignoring’ law in rebuke of birthright citizenship order
