Washington, DC – Today, Democratic Attorneys General across the country have filed their first lawsuits against the Trump administration. Yesterday, President Trump issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship, attempting to strip citizenship from Americans all across the country. The lawsuits filed state that Trump’s executive order is in direct violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which automatically confers U.S. citizenship on all children born in the United States. 

Democratic AGs will continue to be on the front lines defending Americans’ rights and freedoms against unconstitutional attacks from the Trump administration.  

In an article by CNN, New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin, who co-led one of the suits alongside California AG Rob Bonta and Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell, stated, ‘“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.’” 

Key highlights from CNN:

• “‘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,’ the lawsuit says.”
• “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.”
• “Both the ACLU and the attorneys general have described bringing their challenges as an easy call, legally, believing that the merits weigh heavily on their side.”
• The impacted children, the states argue, ‘will lose the ability to access myriad federal services that are available to their fellow Americans. And despite the Constitution’s guarantee of their citizenship, they will lose their rights to participate in the economic and civic life of their own country – to work, vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices.’”
  

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong also told NBC News “‘This is a war on American families waged by a president with zero respect for our Constitution. We have sued, and I have every confidence we will win.’”

In addition to the lawsuit brought by AGs Platkin, Campbell, and Bonta and 16 other Democratic AGs, newly elected Washington AG Nick Brown led an additional lawsuit against the executive order, filing suit alongside Democratic AGs from Illinois, Arizona, and Oregon. 

As reported by The Seattle Times “Brown, on Monday night, called Trump’s suite of first-day executive orders ‘gravely concerning’ and referred to several, including the attack on birthright citizenship, as ‘not only unconstitutional on their face, but simply un-American.’”

AG Brown stated “‘The President has no authority to amend the Constitution or supersede the Citizenship Clause’s grant of citizenship to individuals born in the United States.’”

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