PITTSBURG — A former resident of Pittsburg and now a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle ruled last week that President Donald Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the U.S. illegally is against the U.S. Constitution, according to the Pittsburg Morning Sun.
John Coughenour, a 1959 graduate of Pittsburg High School, was appointed as a federal judge for the Western District of Washington by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Over the course of his 40-plus years on the bench, Coughenour has ruled on thousands of cases, the Sun reported.
Coughenour called Trump’s executive order, which overturns 100 years of legal precedence, as “blatantly unconstitutional,” the Associated Press reported.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades and I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is,” he said.
Coughenour issued a temporary order blocking the executive order for 14 days, pending further arguments, the Sun reported.
After high school, Coughenour earned a degree from Pittsburg State University and a law degree from the University of Iowa.
Though he has no family residing in Pittsburg he said he continues to subscribe to the Morning Sun and that the paper is his link to his hometown, pulling him back for brief visits.
