WASHINGTON — Within hours of the Supreme Court issuing a ruling that limits judges’ ability to impose nationwide injunctions, challengers launched new legal efforts to block President Donald Trump’s plan to restrict birthright citizenship through different legal strategies.On Friday, the court ruled that judges generally cannot issue sweeping “universal injunctions” that apply nationwide, but it left the door open for plaintiffs to seek broad relief through class action lawsuits instead.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) quickly filed a class action lawsuit in New Hampshire on behalf of immigrants whose children risk being denied U.S. citizenship at birth if Trump’s executive order takes effect.Meanwhile, in a separate Maryland case where a nationwide injunction had previously been granted, attorneys amended their complaint within hours of the Supreme Court’s decision. They are now seeking class-wide relief for everyone affected by Trump’s plan, according to the amended filing referencing the opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.“Every court to have looked at this cruel order agrees that it is unconstitutional,” said ACLU attorney Cody Wofsy. “The Supreme Court’s decision did not remotely suggest otherwise.”Trump’s proposal would restrict birthright citizenship — which has been widely understood, under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, to guarantee citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil (with very limited exceptions) — to children of at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident parent.William Powell, a lawyer involved in the Maryland case, told reporters that the amended complaint aims to “certify a nationwide class of all people who are affected by the executive order.” This would include babies already born as well as those yet to be born, along with their parents.Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, indicated that class actions could be a viable path forward for challengers, writing that plaintiffs may “sometimes seek to proceed by class action … and ask a court to award preliminary class-wide relief that may, for example, be statewide, region-wide, or even nationwide.”The Supreme Court’s ruling narrowed the scope of the injunctions in the Maryland case, as well as in two other nationwide injunctions previously issued by judges in Washington state and Massachusetts in cases brought by state governments.
