A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order to end automatic citizenship to babies born on American soil, dealing the president his first setback as he attempts to upend the nation’s immigration laws and reverse decades of precedent. In a hearing held three days after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, a Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided at least for the moment with four states that sued. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said. Mr. Trump’s order, issued in the opening hours of his presidency, declared that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants would no longer be treated as citizens. The order also extended to babies of mothers who were in the country legally but temporarily, such as tourists, university students or temporary workers.

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional." U.S. District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day on office. "This is blatantly unconstitutional order," the judge told a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department defending Trump's order. The order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.

A federal judge in Seattle issued a nationwide temporary restraining order on Thursday halting President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship. Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.” “Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour stated.