By MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Boston ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, adding to the mounting legal setbacks for the president’s birthright order.

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A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth federal court since June to either issue or uphold orders blocking the president’s birthright order. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the children described in the order are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The panel upheld lower courts’ preliminary injunctions, which blocked the birthright order while lawsuits challenging it moved ahead. The order, signed the day the president took office in January, would halt automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.

“The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the court wrote.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was one of nearly 20 that were part of the lawsuit challenging the order, welcomed the ruling.

“The First Circuit reaffirmed what we already knew to be true: The President’s attack on birthright citizenship flagrantly defies the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a nationwide injunction is the only reasonable way to protect against its catastrophic implications,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are glad that the courts have continued to protect Americans’ fundamental rights.”

In July, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide after a key Supreme Court decision in June. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland also issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.

The justices ruled in June that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.

A federal judge in New Hampshire later issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action suit, and a San Francisco-based appeals court affirmed a different lower court’s nationwide injunction in a lawsuit that included state plaintiffs.

In September, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to uphold its birthright citizenship order. The appeal sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.

“The court is misinterpreting the 14th Amendment. We look forward to being vindicated by the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

At the heart of the lawsuits challenging the birthright order is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens.

Plaintiffs in the Boston case — one of the cases the 1st Circuit considered — told Sorokin that the principle of birthright citizenship is “enshrined in the Constitution,” and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”

Justice Department attorneys argued the phrase “subject to United States jurisdiction” in the amendment means that citizenship isn’t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone.

In a landmark birthright citizenship case, the Supreme Court in 1898 found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil.

Forest Lake Area Schools Superintendent Steve Massey will retire at the end of the school year.

Massey, 62, of Forest Lake, announced his retirement during the school board meeting on Thursday night. His last day will be June 30.

Superintendent Steve Massey (Courtesy of Forest Lake Area Schools)

“It has been my greatest honor to serve the students, families and staff of this amazing community and school district for the past 27 years,” Massey said. “My greatest desire has always been to lead the district to a better place during my tenure as superintendent.”

Massey, who has been superintendent since 2017, was in the final year of a three-year contract.

School Board Chairman Curt Rebelein said Friday that he has already started the process of looking for Massey’s replacement.

“It was a shock to us all, but I think Steve is leaving behind a really good legacy, and I wish him well in his retirement,” Rebelein said. “It’s an exciting time for him. He’s been a great superintendent in a lot of ways for Forest Lake Area Schools. He has led us through some pretty major, pretty amazing changes the last couple of years.”

Several controversial issues have come before the Forest Lake Area School Board this year, including whether to remove specific bans on symbols like swastikas, the KKK and the Confederate flag on clothing.

But Rebelein said that much of that “friction” has “settled down.”

“The majority of our meetings haven’t been as contentious as they were at that time of the year, so I hope things are starting to normalize for us. But only time will tell,” he said.

Rebelein said the new superintendent will have their hands full dealing with elementary-school boundary changes that go into effect next fall.

“I want to get the search going as quickly as I can because I’m really interested in attracting the top talent,” he said. “I’m working on just a very basic job description, so I can work with our director of human resources to get the position posted and start seeing what kind of interest we have.”

Massey’s departure will leave a “gaping hole” in the district, said board member Gail Theisen at Thursday’s meeting.

“Your have shown us what teamwork is and how to be strong and respectful,” she said. “We will carry on the good work, having learned from you. We will continue in your absence to go forward with integrity, respect and to always focus on what’s best for our students.”

Massey has worked in the district since 1999. He served 14 years as principal of Forest Lake Area High School before being tapped to be superintendent.

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Massey teaches the superintendency course and the principalship course at the University of Minnesota.

In his statement to the board, he said that “educating and preparing our young to be tomorrow’s leaders” is one of the greatest callings.

Massey also said that the district is in good shape.

“Enrollment is increasing despite declining birthrates, a testament to Forest Lake Area Schools being a place kids and families want to be,” he said. “Our financial footing is solid, and the district’s reserve funds are strong.”

With the Twin Cities Marathon wrapped up, the John Ireland Boulevard bridge over Interstate 94 between Kellogg Boulevard and Rice Street in St. Paul will close Monday for reconstruction expected to last until August of 2026.

Detours

Hundreds of runners make their way down John Ireland Boulevard and over the bridge towards the finish line of the 10 Mile race in St. Paul on Sunday, October 7, 2018. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Traffic will be directed from Kellogg to Marion Street to University Avenue to Rice Street.

Those on foot or bicycling will be detoured to Kellogg to the Marion Street bridge to Rondo Avenue.

Taking it apart, rebuilding it

The bridge, first constructed in 1967, has four lanes of traffic over I-94. The state Department of Transportation plans to take it apart and rebuild it.

While it is currently safe, repair is needed to keep it that way for motorists based on modern weight limits, according to MnDOT.

The bridge will be rebuilt within “the same footprint as the existing bridge,” according to a statement from MnDOT. There also will be sidewalk repairs, updates to bike and pedestrian facilities, accessibility, and railing.

When will the work start?

Construction noise is expected to begin between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, MnDOT said.

Those with questions can contact the project hotline at info@stpaulbridges.com or 612-424-2698. More information can be found at 511mn.org.

Other bridge projects

Besides John Ireland, MnDOT also is working to replace bridges over I-94 and I-35E at Jackson Street, Robert Street, Minnesota Street, Cedar Street, Wabasha Street North, 10th Street West, Western Avenue North, Marion Street and the ramp from Fifth Street to westbound I-94. The work is expected to be finished by fall of 2026.

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By Gregory Korte, Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — The White House still employs 45 staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency despite the Tesla Inc. CEO’s departure in May — and they’re exempt from being furloughed during the government shutdown.

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The arrangement was revealed in a memo released Thursday from the White House Office of Administration detailing the staffing plan while funding from Congress remains in limbo.

The White House shutdown plan also highlights a pattern of shifting definitions of essential and non-essential workers under President Donald Trump, who has furloughed 514 fewer White House staffers than he did during the last government shutdown under his watch in 2018.

Under the earlier plan, which former President Joe Biden also adopted but never had to implement, about 61% of staff in the Executive Office of the President were temporarily laid off. The current plan furloughs only 32% of the staff.

Despite keeping more of the White House staff on-the-job during the shutdown, Trump has said he is looking to lay off federal workers, instead of just furloughing them. The White House has said the cuts could number in the “thousands.”

Among the offices fully open despite the shutdown is DOGE, the government cost-cutting operation once led by Musk before he and Trump had a falling out over the president’s support of a deficit-expanding tax cut bill.

After Musk’s departure in May, the White House said DOGE had been decentralized, and that its teams throughout the government would report to their presidentially appointed agency heads. But the shutdown plan reveals that 45 DOGE staffers still work in the US DOGE Service, a component within the Executive Office of the President.

The memo from Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, did not explain why the DOGE staffers were exempt from furloughs. But DOGE’s predecessor office, the US Digital Service, was able to function through previous shutdowns because it had a separate source of funding from fees it charged other government agencies for its work.

Other parts of the White House are also seeing fewer furloughs this time. The Office of Management and Budget keeps 437 employees on duty, compared with 161 under the 2018 plan. The tax cut law — dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill — provided $100 million in long-term funding for the budget office.

The White House Office itself — the president’s immediate staff — holds on to 175 aides, slightly more than the 156 in the last shutdown. And Trump has almost doubled the number of retained workers in the executive residence to 40.

At the same time, Trump officials have signaled they will use the lapse in funding to pare back or shutter programs they oppose — especially in states that voted for his opponent last year. And the White House has threatened to permanently fire thousands of federal employees in the coming days, citing the lack of congressional funding.

The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment on the shutdown plan, but instead sent an automated out-of-office reply echoing the administration’s political talking points.

“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the message said. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

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