A federal judge has temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order seeking to unilaterally redefine the 14th Amendment and deny citizenship to certain American-born children of immigrants.
District Judge John Coughenour, presiding over a lawsuit brought by several states seeking to overturn Trump’s order, delivered a blistering criticism of the president’s “blatantly unconstitutional” action from the bench in a Seattle courtroom.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” said the Ronald Reagan appointee, according to The Seattle Times.
“There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?” he said.
“Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour continued. “It just boggles my mind.”
The judge is expected to issue a written ruling to grant the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order as the case plays out.
The lawsuit from Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington is one of at least five legal challenges playing out in federal courts across the country.
Eighteen state attorneys general and officials in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco are also suing the Trump administration to block the “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”
This is a developing story
