A federal judge’s ruling last week to maintain a sweeping nationwide ban on Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order highlights the dizzying legal battle that has defined the administration’s opening months, with courts issuing dozens of such sweeping orders to systematically halt abrasive elements of the president’s agenda.

US district judge Leo Sorokin in Boston rejected Trump administration arguments to narrow his nationwide injunction, a court order that prohibits the federal government from enforcing a law or policy against anyone across the nation, and not just the people who filed the legal challenge.

His decision represents just one case in a broader pattern of judicial resistance to Trump administration actions. Courts have