Wednesday, January 22, 2025 - Twenty-four Democratic-led states and cities are suing President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship in the US.
The lawsuits allege that a Trump executive order signed on Monday,
January 20, violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which gives a
constitutional right of citizenship to all children born in the United States.
“Despite a President’s broad powers to set immigration policy, however,
the Citizenship Stripping Order falls far outside the legal bounds of the
President’s authority,” states a lawsuit from 18 states, Washington, DC,
and San Francisco.
The case could end up becoming the first major Supreme Court showdown
for Trump’s second-term agenda. The 18 states filed in a Massachusetts federal
court, which means any appeal of a ruling from that court will come up through
the First US Circuit Court of Appeals, where all the judges are Democratic
appointees.
The Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship in the past and
there is also a federal law passed by Congress, predating the 14th Amendment’s
1868 ratification, establishing that children born on US soil are entitled to
citizenship.
“The president’s entitled to put forth a policy agenda that he sees
fit,” New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who is co-leading
the new lawsuit, told CNN.
“When it comes to birthright citizenship – something that’s been part of
the fabric of this nation for centuries, that’s been in the Constitution for
157 years since the Civil War, that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court twice –
the president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, rewrite the Constitution and
upend the rule of law,” he added.
Also on Tuesday, the attorneys general of Washington, Arizona, Oregon,
and Illinois filed their own lawsuit on the West Coast
It was filed at a federal court in Seattle that is within the 9th US Circuit
Court of Appeals.
Both suits are also seeking a preliminary order blocking the policy
before the Trump administration can take steps to implement it.
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