ACLU Asks a Judge to Rule That Trump's New Birthright Citizenship Orders Defy the Supreme Court

In a filing on August 11, 2026 in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, the ACLU and other groups asked the judge to declare that Trump's August 6 executive orders cannot be used to strip citizenship from children covered by an existing class injunction. The orders would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who work for foreign governments, who are classified as alien enemies, or who engaged in a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship. The filing says the president continues to claim for himself the power to identify categories of children whose citizenship he intends to deny. The orders are set to take effect September 6, 2026.

The motion frames the question as one of compliance rather than of first impression: whether an executive order rewritten around the edges can reach a class the Supreme Court has already placed beyond the president's reach.

The Supreme Court held on June 30, 2026 that Trump's original order violated the Fourteenth Amendment. A White House spokesperson said the administration has always followed court orders and that its actions since the ruling are consistent with the Court's holdings. The motion is pending.