A federal judge in Maryland has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman heard arguments Wednesday over a request by five pregnant undocumented women to block Trump's Day-1 executive order seeking to redefine the meaning of the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship.

"The denial of the precious right to citizenship will cause irreparable harm," Judge Boardman said in handing down her order. "It has been said the right to U.S. citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. If the court does not enjoin enforcement of the executive order, children subject to the order will be denied the rights and benefits of U.S. citizenship and their parents will face instability."

The ruling comes two weeks after a federal judge in Seattle criticized the Department of Justice for attempting to defend what he called a "blatantly unconstitutional" order and issued a temporary restraining order.

As Trump announces a plan to "own" Gaza, and possibly deploy troops to achieve his goal, spare a thought for those voters who took seriously the idea that the Republican was the candidate of foreign policy restraint

On the contrary, earlier in the week, Trump abandoned decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy and publicly declared his belief that Palestinians should leave the Gaza Strip to “clean out” the enclave. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius noted soon after that the American president’s comments “astonished moderate Arab leaders who had been looking forward to working with him.”

A week later, as NBC News reported, the Republican went much further down the same radical path:

President Donald Trump, speaking at a White House news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that the U.S. would seek ownership of the war-torn Gaza Strip after saying Palestinians have no choice but to leave their homes there. “We’ll own it,” Trump said of Gaza.

The Republican, at the same press conference, described his vision of the United States maintaining a “long-term ownership position” of Gaza......

Trump was also asked at the same press conference whether he has the legal authority to take a sovereign territory. He never quite got around to answering the question.

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1886932026970005813

The president might’ve struggled with this point because, according to experts in international law, his plan is illegal.

The reactions on Capitol Hill were far from positive. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was willing to go out on a limb and call Trump’s plan “problematic,” but Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was far more direct, describing the proposal as “deranged” and “nuts.”

A federal judge temporarily blocked prison officials from moving a transgender woman to a men’s prison and cutting off her access to gender-affirming care.

The temporary restraining order issued on Sunday from U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole prevents part of President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring there are only “two sexes” from going into immediate effect. The order, signed by the president on his first day in office, called on government officials to ensure that there are no transgender women in women’s detention centers and that no federal funds are used to provide gender-affirming care to people in Bureau of Prisons custody.

The day after Trump signed the executive order, BOP moved a transgender woman in Massachusetts identified as Maria Moe into a solitary confinement unit typically used for disciplinary purposes, pending transfer to a men’s facility. Moe sued the Trump administration on Sunday night — the first known legal challenge to the executive — alleging that the directive put her safety at risk. The case was sealed until Thursday, when the court held a hearing on whether to grant Moe further relief.

“We are relieved that our client is staying put for now,” Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law and one of Moe’s lawyers, said in a statement. “For over ten years, prison officials have had the discretion to make individualized housing decisions to protect transgender women from severe violence in men’s facilities. Corrections experts agree that case-by-case assessment is crucial for safety throughout the prison system and oppose any blanket rule that would overturn a policy that has been proven to work.”

GAZA (The Borowitz Report)—A spokesman for the Palestinian people said on Wednesday that, though they had no intention of leaving the Gaza Strip, they would be “very interested” in taking control of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Right now, Mar-a-Lago is a mess,” the spokesman said. “The only reason anyone is living there is because they have no other alternative.”

The spokesman said the Palestinians would begin rehabilitating the derelict property by “clearing out all of the stolen documents and returning them to their rightful owners.”

Additionally, the spokesman indicated, Mar-a-Lago would require “extensive fumigation,” adding, “If it’s like any other Trump property, it has a bedbug issue.”

The first breakthrough of sorts was announced in the morning, when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she’d reached a temporary agreement with the Trump administration, in which she’d deploy 10,000 members of the Mexican national guard to the border.

Republicans tripped over each other to suggest Trump had scored a triumph for the ages. “Democrats and members of the media, take note,” House Speaker Mike Johnson boasted online. “President Trump knows how to get results.” Elon Musk added, “At this rate of achievement, not only should President Donald Trump be on Mount Rushmore, I want to personally work the chisel!”

Whether GOP leaders and their megadonors understand this or not, Mexico really just offered Trump more of the same. Indeed, as The New Republic noted, Mexico sent 15,000 troops to the border in 2019, and sent 10,000 again in 2021. Or put another way, Sheinbaum agreed to do what her country has already done in recent years. (Note, when our southern neighbors agreed to do this during Joe Biden’s presidency, it was the result of effective diplomacy, not threats.)

Hours later, the Republican president announced that he was also delaying his plan related to Canada, following a phone meeting in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as Trump put it, agreed to “implement their $1.3 Billion Border plan.”....

All of which leaves us with a fairly obvious conclusion: Trump picked a fight, faced pressure, saw stock market declines, and caved in exchange for effectively nothing, sparking a new round of international headlines about the American president being a “paper tiger.”

Of course, if the Republican is pausing his punitive measures related to Canada and Mexico, what about China? NBC News reported that officials in Beijing “retaliated immediately” to the White House’s move, “announcing a series of measures including its own levies of 10% to 15% on some U.S. products.” The report added, “The failure to forestall tit-for-tat tariffs with China raises the risk of a spiraling trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.”

It’s hard to say with confidence when or whether Trump will fold again. Watch this space.

MEXICO CITY (The Borowitz Report)—After persuading him to delay his trade war with her nation, on Monday Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was “confident” Donald J. Trump would not remember to impose a tariff on Mexico a month from now.

“After I got off the phone with him, I was like, ‘He’ll never retain any of this,’” she said. “It’s all good.”

Asked why she was convinced that Trump would not remember the tariff, she said, “Please. He can’t remember his wife’s name.”

In Washington, Trump said that he was looking forward to having a phone conversation with the president of Mexico someday.