Civil rights attorneys filed a legal challenge on Tuesday in a New Hampshire federal court against a new executive order from President Donald Trump that aims to limit birthright citizenship. The motion, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups, asks U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante to clarify that the president’s order exceeds the narrow constitutional exceptions recently defined by the Supreme Court. The filing comes five days after the president signed the order on August 6.
This legal action follows a June 30 Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which struck down a previous 2025 executive order. That earlier order had attempted to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors. In that decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause applies broadly, with only rare exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and certain 19th-century Native American tribal members.
The new August 6 order, titled "Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," seeks to exclude several specific groups from automatic citizenship. These include children of foreign embassy employees, officials from international organizations like the United Nations, and individuals designated as "alien enemies." A separate order signed the same day, titled "Ending Birth Tourism," targets foreign nationals who travel to the U.S. specifically to give birth.
Plaintiffs argue that the president cannot unilaterally create new exceptions to the 14th Amendment. They contend that while the administration claims the order covers groups like ambassadors—who are already legally exempt—it expands those categories to include embassy staff who do not have full diplomatic immunity. The challengers stated in their filing that if the president issues multiple orders seeking new exceptions to the citizenship clause, all such attempts remain illegal under the court's prior ruling.
The legal dispute also has immediate implications for residents of U.S. territories and those involved in "birth tourism." A person born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands currently receives automatic citizenship, but this order and a related bill in Congress seek to change that status. Specifically, a bill introduced in the 119th Congress would end birthright citizenship in those territories starting January 1, 2027. This creates a period of legal uncertainty for expectant parents in those regions and for individuals traveling to the U.S. for medical care or commerce related to childbirth.
This case sets a precedent regarding the limits of executive power over the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court has already issued a final judgment on the 2025 order, and the administration did not seek a rehearing by the late July deadline. If the district court grants the injunction requested on Tuesday, it would block the administration from enforcing these new categories of exclusion. The next steps involve Judge Laplante's ruling on the motion to clarify the preliminary injunction, while the proposed territorial citizenship bill remains pending in Congress. No specific court date for a hearing on this new motion was reported.