NEW YORK, February 7. /TASS/. A federal judge in Seattle blocked US President Donald Trump's executive order rescinding birthright US citizenship.

"It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals," US District Judge John Coughenour said. "If the government wants to change the exceptional grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself."

"Because the president’s order attempts to circumvent this process, it is clearly unconstitutional," the judge went on to say.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Maryland also granted a preliminary injunction, which blocked Trump’s order until the case was resolved or until a higher court overruled the injunction. US District Judge Deborah Boardman said in that case that no court in the country has endorsed the Trump administration’s reading of the 14th Amendment.

Just hours after taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order rescinding birthright citizenship. According to Reuters, the order limited the automatic granting of US citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants.

The following day, 22 states filed lawsuits challenging the order in US courts. On January 23, the Seattle Times reported that a federal district court in the State of Washington had temporarily blocked the order.