Four days have passed since the inauguration of Donald Trump as the new president of the United States, but three were enough to see in action a judge trying to put a spanner in the works to the tycoon. Yes, because the first stop to the owner of the White House came from Seattle: a judge, John Coughenour to be precise, temporarily blocked the entry into force of the executive order with which the president wanted to deny the children of undocumented immigrants “birthright citizenship”, citizenship by birthright, the stars and stripes version of jus soli.
This is a first obstacle for Trump, determined to rewrite immigration laws in record time, from decree to decree. The stop to the ius soli was one of the first measures signed by the president upon entering the White House and is one of the cornerstones of White House battle against migrants. The Donald ended up in the crosshairs of twenty-two states who immediately filed a lawsuit asking for the implementation of the decree to be stopped because it violated the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution.
According to the plaintiffs, Trump’s executive order would illegally deny approximately 150,000 children born in the US each year the citizenship guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment and federal law. Appointed by Reagan, Judge Coughenour agreed with them: “I have been a judge for 40 years and I cannot recall another case where the question presented was as clear as this one. It is blatantly unconstitutional. Where were the lawyers when the decision on this measure was taken?”.
Nick Brown, attorney general of Washington state, applauded the justice’s decision: “We hope that this unconstitutional and anti-American executive order will not take effect thanks to our action.” But Trump does not seem willing to stand by and watch, on the contrary. The Donald has announced that the government will appeal against the stop imposed by Coughenour. “We will appeal”the president said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
The judge will listen to arguments regarding the legality of the measure, but his line appears rather clear: “Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a registered lawyer can unequivocally state that this decree is constitutional.” This is the first of a long series of chapters of the clash between Trump and the judiciary? We know something about deployed togas, a battle that has been going on for over thirty years. And we know what the seventy-eight-year-old has been through in recent years from a justice perspective. The fear is that of being faced with paralysis, with appeals, lawsuits and executive orders ruined ideologically.
All that remains is to understand how the situation will evolve, but we are unlikely to see Trump take a step backwards. As promised in the election campaign, the tycoon wants to fulfill all the promises made to American citizens, who also voted for him for the crackdown on the migrant dossier, one of the most urgent critical issues for citizens, just think of the hell experienced daily by New York, where dem mayor Eric Adams immediately said he was ready to collaborate with The Donald to find efficient solutions. The hope is that of do not find yourself faced with a judiciary disguised as an oppositionwith the judges ready to take on the role of the Democrats to stop the president’s action.
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