51吃瓜网

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who has been in office for only about a week, got his first win.

Brown was in court Thursday morning seeking a temporary restraining order to block President Donald Trump’s executive order 听regardless of the parents’ immigration status.

Previous coverage: WA AG files temporary restraining order against Trump鈥檚 executive order ending birthright citizenship

KIRO Newsradio’s James Lynch was in the courtroom. He reported Brown was seeking a 14-day temporary restraining order that would prevent Trump’s order from going into effect, next month.

Subsequently, Brown got what he came for.

“The judge issued a temporary restraining order directing the United States government to take no further action in enforcing and implementing the unconstitutional and UN American Executive Order attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship in America,” Brown said

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said it boggles his mind that any attorney would argue that Trump’s executive order is constitutional. He ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship.

The case is one of听听and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are U.S. citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won鈥檛 become U.S. citizens.

, the order is slated to take effect on Feb. 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle.

Trump signed an order to end birthright citizenship:听What is it and what does that mean?

The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship 鈥� the principle of jus soli or 鈥渞ight of the soil鈥� 鈥� is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.

The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalized in the U.S., and states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century.

Ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, the amendment says: 鈥淎ll 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.鈥�

Trump鈥檚 order asserts that the children of noncitizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and orders federal agencies to not recognize citizenship for children who don鈥檛 have at least one parent who is a citizen.

A key case involving birthright citizenship unfolded in 1898. The Supreme Court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country. After a trip abroad, he faced being denied reentry by the federal government on the grounds that he wasn鈥檛 a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that case clearly applied to children born to parents who were both legal immigrants. They say it鈥檚 less clear whether it applies to children born to parents living in the country illegally.

Trump鈥檚 executive order prompted attorneys general to share their personal connections to birthright citizenship. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, for instance, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation鈥檚 first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him.

鈥淭here is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own,鈥� Tong said this week.

One of the lawsuits aimed at blocking the executive order includes the case of a pregnant woman, identified as 鈥淐armen,鈥� who is not a citizen but has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent residency status.

鈥淪tripping children of the 鈥榩riceless treasure鈥� of citizenship is a grave injury,鈥� the suit says. 鈥淚t denies them the full membership in U.S. society to which they are entitled.鈥�

Contributing: The Associated Press; James Lynch, KIRO Newsradio; Julia Dallas, 51吃瓜网