WASHINGTON, DC – After the Supreme Court handed down its decision on the issue of nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship suits, Democratic AGs took to TV to further discuss the significance of the ruling, emphasizing why it is so important to have Democratic AGs fighting back against the Trump administration’s unlawful attacks on the Constitution.

“The Supreme Court clearly agreed that we have the right to seek nationwide relief in this case, and that if there’s ever been a case where nationwide relief is appropriate, it is this one,” AG Platkin told Chris Jansing. “Because citizenship in this country, since the Civil War, has not turned on which state you live in, and I don’t think we want to go back to an America that predates the Civil War.”

Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell and Michigan AG Dana Nessel on Chris Hayes:

• “…birthright citizenship is still the law of the land,” AG Campbell said. “And we still have the opportunity to go back to the district court and to make sure, as we argued before, not only that we’re protecting children and the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship, but that we get the nationwide relief that we need to be able to enforce the amendment as it stands.”
• “I’m gonna be interested to see what our Republican colleagues do and how they are going to rationalize this or explain it to their constituents when only the states with Democratic AGs see these benefits and these rights protected but not the individuals in their respective states,” AG Nessel said.
• “I would just add, and I think this is the point we all want to make, that right now the only AGs in this country that are fighting to protect the Constitution, the rule of law, public health, and our residents is Democratic AGs,” AG Campbell said. “Republican AGs are nowhere to be found.” 
• “And everyone should ask themselves in any state where they don’t have a Democratic AG, what is their attorney general doing to protect their rights and to protect our Constitution?” AG Campbell said.

New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin on Chris Jansing: 

• “But clearly in this case, when the citizenship of babies born on U.S. soil is at issue, it shouldn’t be decided state by state whether or not your attorney general had the courage to join a lawsuit.”
• “It’s ridiculous she [US AG Pam Bondi] has no answer and the fact that they put this executive order out and argued all the way up to the Supreme Court without even having given thought to how they would administer it tells you how reckless and unprecedented this administration’s actions are.”
• “I’m confident at the end of this, one of the most flagrantly unlawful orders ever issued by a president, this order, will not stand. But make no mistake, the President, enabled by the Supreme Court, is engaging in an unprecedented assault on Americans’ constitutional rights.”
• “And we are gonna stand for people’s rights in this country, and it is very clear that it has never mattered more whether or not you have a state attorney general who’s willing to fight for you.”
• “…this administration has been on a path to authoritarianism enabled by the Supreme Court for a long time. You can’t look at the attacks on the judiciary, the attacks on the press, the attacks on our university, the attacks on states, the attacks on people’s fundamental rights in such a brazen way and come to any other conclusion.”

Washington AG Nick Brown and New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin on Jen Psaki: 

• “…what we’ve seen from the first six months of this Trump administration, time and time again evading the power of Congress, evading state sovereignty, and using executive orders to make massive sweeping policies across the country,” AG Brown said. “You know, the only stop guard to that has been the courts has been state attorney generals has been organizations bringing claims on behalf of their people in their community.
• “We are going to show why it is impossible and absurd to think we could administer birthright citizenship based on which state you live in at the time of birth and whether or not your attorney general had the courage to join a lawsuit,” AG Platkin said.
• “…every court that has looked at this, not just for the past 150 years, but all the district courts that looked at this in the first instance when we brought challenges starting back in January,” AG Brown said. “They’ve all reached the same conclusion that it’s blatantly unconstitutional, that there is no legal basis to do this.
• “But it is really fortunate that we have people in positions in the states to stand up and fight back and really force the president to follow the rule of law,” AG Brown said. “And I’m so humbled to be in this position to work with my Democratic colleagues across the country because we have been the safeguard for so many fundamental rights in this moment.”
• “And I think so many people in this country right now should be asking their attorney generals in other states, ‘Why didn’t you join this case?’ And not only this case, ‘Why haven’t you defended state funding that’s been unconstitutionally cut by this president?’” 

Colorado AG Phil Weiser and New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin on CNN News Central: 

• “I think what Attorney General Platkin said is important, because of this decision, state attorneys general are now more important than ever,” AG Weiser said. “We have the ability and the unique ability in this case to get universal relief for what is a flagrantly unconstitutional action.”
• “This is the prototypical case where it just does not make sense for the first time since the Civil War to decide baby citizenship based on whether the attorney general of their state joined a lawsuit,” AG Platkin said. “It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous.”
• “This court wants to restrain, wants to restrict nationwide injunctions. They just happened to pick the worst case to do that because this is a case that is exactly what universal injunctions are for,” AG Weiser said. “It is so wrong to allow this, again, flagrant abuse of power, an unconstitutional action that is widely seen as a strong overreach.”

###