Judge blocks Trump's second attempt at birthright citizenship, citing ruling that blocked his first

…(cont) That's the whole note. Just the word, underlined twice, from back in June, when I first heard the Supreme Court had settled the birthright citizenship question. I remember writing it because at the time I thought, well, that's that, put the pencil down, case closed. The Court said the earlier executive order restricting who counts as a citizen at birth was blocked. Not delayed. Not narrowed. Blocked. I wrote "settled" next to it and closed the notebook.

I had to open it again this week, because on Wednesday a federal judge in Maryland blocked another executive order doing the same thing. Same policy. Judge Deborah Boardman granted the injunction, and according to what I read, the ruling cited the Supreme Court's own June decision to do it — the same decision I'd already written down. I'm sorry, I know I said I closed the notebook. I had to reopen it to the same page.

The new order was signed in August. That's two months after the settling. I keep going back to that gap, the two months, because I don't know what a person gets done in a garage in two months — replace a fan belt, maybe, if the parts store has it in stock — but apparently what got done here was a second executive order on the exact question the Court had already closed the file on. I'm sorry, I keep coming back to the two months. It's a short amount of time to reopen a settled matter.

It wasn't just the calendar, either. The reporting says the case was brought by the same two immigration advocacy groups that challenged the first attempt last year. So somebody had to walk back into a federal courthouse and file the same complaint against the same policy for the second time, carry the same box of paper up the same steps. I don't know what that box weighs. I know what my toolbox weighs when I'm hauling it out to the car for no reason except I already own it and it's expensive to buy tools twice. I'm sorry — I keep going back to the carrying part. Somebody had to do that twice, is what I keep circling.

And then there's the page itself. The ruling this week cited the June decision directly in blocking the August order — meaning somewhere in a courthouse in Maryland, a decision from June got set down next to an order from August, two documents about the identical restriction, side by side on the same desk. I'm sorry to keep bringing this up, I really am, but I keep going back to the two documents on the one desk.

My wife asked me why I was still carrying the notebook around the house Wednesday night. I told her I was looking for the page. She said I already found the page. I said I know, I keep going back to it.

Which brings me to the thing I actually wanted to ask. Excuse me — before you go — the coverage on this called it the president's second try. Not a revision. Not a clarification. A second try, at the same restriction, the same Court having already ruled the first one out in June. I've got that written down too, same page, same word, underlined the same twice.

So here's what I can't get past, and I'll leave it right where I found it: if the first one was already settled in June, what do you call the second?