Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in birthright citizenship cases

Washington — President Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to limit for now the scope of three lower court orders that broadly blocked enforcement of his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.

The Trump administration asked the high court for emergency relief in three separate requests, which arise out of cases brought in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state. In all three disputes, U.S. district court judges issued orders blocking nationwide enforcement of Mr. Trump’s executive order, which was issued his first day in office.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris is now asking the high court to limit the sweep of those orders to cover only those individuals are directly involved in the cases. 

“These cases — which involve challenges to the President’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order concerning birthright citizenship — raise important constitutional questions with major ramifications for securing the border,” she wrote in the requests. “But at this stage, the government comes to this Court with a ‘modest’ request: while the parties litigate weighty merits questions, the Court should ‘restrict the scope’ of multiple preliminary injunctions that ‘purpor[t] to cover every person in the country,’ limiting those injunctions to parties actually within the courts’ power.”