# Executive Order 14160

Executive Order 14160, titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship", is an executive order signed by Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, on January 20, 2025. The executive order aims to challenge the previously prevailing interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, in order to end birthright citizenship in the United States for children of illegal immigrants as well as immigrants legally but temporarily present in the U.S., such as those on student, work, or tourist visas.
The order was swiftly challenged in court by multiple organizations and states, being blocked by multiple federal judges.

## Provisions

Trump's executive order seeks to redefine how the Fourteenth Amendment's clause "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" should be interpreted.
The executive order states two different situations where a person is no longer a U.S. citizen at birth.
* When the mother was unlawfully present in the U.S. and the father was neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident when the person was born.
* When the mother was in the U.S. in temporary status, such as a student visa, work visa, tourist visa or under the Visa Waiver Program, and the father was neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident when the person was born.
The executive order states that these provisions are only effective for people born 30 days or more after the date of the order; it would have only applied to children born beginning February 19, 2025 had it not been blocked.

## Legal challenges

At least ten lawsuits challenging the executive order have been brought by various plaintiffs, including 22 U.S. state attorneys general, civil liberties and immigrants rights groups, and pregnant women. As of February 2025, four federal judges have issued preliminary injunctions blocking its implementation and enforcement nationwide. On March 13, the Trump administration made emergency applications to the Supreme Court, asking it to narrow those court orders. In these appeals, the government argued for its position on birthright citizenship.

### State of Washington v. Trump

On January 21, Attorney General of Washington Nick Brown filed suit against the Trump administration in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, arguing that the order violates the 14th Amendment and federal immigration law. The lawsuit was joined by Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois. It was the first of the lawsuits to get a hearing in court, when on January 23, Judge John C. Coughenour issued a temporary block on the order, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional." On February 6, 2025, Coughenour granted a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the order, while accusing Trump of circumventing or ignoring the rule of law for personal or political gain. The Department of Justice appealed the ruling later that day. The appeal will be heard by the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. On February 19, an appellate panel, the first to make a ruling on the executive order, denied to lift the preliminary injunction on an emergency basis, with the majority citing the unlikelihood of success on the underlying merits, setting the stage for fuller hearings in June 2025, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.

### CASA Inc. v. Trump

A second lawsuit was filed in a Maryland federal court by immigrant and asylum-seeker rights groups CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project on behalf of five pregnant women. On February 5, US District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, saying the order "conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, contradicts 125-year old binding Supreme Court precedent and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth" and was "likely to be found unconstitutional." Attorneys for the Department of Justice appealed the ruling to the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on February 11, the second such appeal in cases related to the executive order after the appeal in State of Washington v. Trump.

### New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support v. Trump

The executive order was challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Asian Law Caucus in the case New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support v. Trump. On February 10, Judge Joseph N. Laplante of the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire became the third federal judge to issue an injunction blocking the order.

### State of New Jersey v. Trump

On January 21, a lawsuit challenging the order was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts by eighteen state attorneys general and the cities of San Francisco and Washington D.C., led by Attorney General of New Jersey Matthew J. Platkin. On February 13, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin became the fourth federal judge to block the executive order, issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction. In the ruling, he wrote that the Constitution "confers birthright citizenship broadly, including to persons within the categories described" by the executive order.