A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to undocumented or temporary immigrant parents, calling the move unconstitutional and legally illogical.

The ruling by US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston marks the third federal court to stop the executive order in its tracks since the Supreme Court last month narrowed the authority of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions.

But Sorokin ruled that an exception applied in this case, where more than a dozen states demonstrated real financial harm tied to the order.

“A patchwork approach to the birthright order would not protect the states,” Sorokin wrote, noting the high mobility of residents between states and slamming the administration’s failure to explain how a more limited injunction would function.

“They have never addressed what renders a proposal feasible or workable The defendants’ position in this regard defies both law and logic.”

The decision maintains a nationwide injunction that preserves birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, pending further review by the courts. Sorokin added that his ruling is not the final word on the issue, but emphasized the constitutional implications of the executive action.

“The President cannot change that legal rule with the stroke of a pen,” Sorokin said. “Trump and his administration are entitled to pursue their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment but for purposes of this lawsuit at this juncture, the Executive Order is unconstitutional.”

The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of states led by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who hailed the ruling as a critical defence of constitutional norms.

“American-born babies are American, just as they have been at every other time in our Nation’s history,” Platkin said in a statement. “I’m thrilled the district court again barred President Trump’s flagrantly unconstitutional birthright citizenship order from taking effect anywhere.”

Government lawyers had argued that the injunction should be limited in scope to states’ financial interests. Still, Sorokin rejected the idea, saying the administration failed to offer any coherent legal or administrative plan for how such limits would work.

This is the third time the executive order has been blocked.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in New Hampshire prohibited the rule in a class-action lawsuit. That decision went into effect after no appeal was filed. On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco also ruled against the order, upholding a nationwide injunction.

A fourth ruling may be on the way. A Maryland judge said she would issue a similar decision if the appeals court agrees.

– Ends

With inputs from Associated Press