The Department of Justice (DOJ) is appealing an order issued by a Seattle federal judge this week indefinitely blocking President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are in the United States illegally.
The department filed a notice Thursday evening stating that it would appeal the ruling to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
It came just hours after U.S. District Judge John Coughenour handed down his decision and marked the first efforts by the Trump administration to take the issue to a higher court amid multiple legal challenges.
Trump’s order on birthright citizenship, issued shortly after he assumed office, claims that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause does not extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States….