CNN
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Twenty Democratic-led states and cities are challenging President Donald Trump’s proposal to abolish birthright citizenship in court, a constitutional challenge to one of the White House’s signature policies. This is a serious objection.
The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s executive order, signed Monday, violates the 14th Amendment, which grants constitutional citizenship to all children born in the United States.
“However, even though the president has broad authority to set immigration policy, the Citizenship Deprivation Order goes far beyond the legal scope of the president’s authority,” in 18 states, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. states the lawsuit from.
The case could end up being the first major Supreme Court showdown over President Trump’s agenda for his second term. Eighteen states have filed their petitions in federal court in Massachusetts, and any appeals from that court’s ruling will go through the First Circuit Court of Appeals, whose judges are all Democratic appointees.
The Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship in the past, and federal laws passed by Congress before the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 provided citizenship to children born on U.S. soil. It is determined that there is a right to obtain
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who co-led the new lawsuit, told CNN: “The president has the right to present the policy agenda he sees fit.”
“When it comes to birthright citizenship, it’s something that’s been part of the fabric of this country for centuries, enshrined in the Constitution for 157 years since the Civil War, and twice upheld by the Supreme Court. , the president can’t do that when he has a stroke.” Rewrite the Constitution and overturn the rule of law with the stroke of a pen,” he added.
Also on Tuesday, attorneys general from Washington, Arizona, Oregon and Illinois filed their own lawsuits on the West Coast. The case was filed in federal court in Seattle, within the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a traditionally left-leaning court but less liberal in recent years.
Both lawsuits also seek preliminary orders blocking the policies before the Trump administration takes steps to implement them.
A similar lawsuit targeting Trump’s order was also filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups.
CNN has reached out to the White House and Department of Justice for comment on the legal challenge to the executive order.
Trump signed the order hours after taking the oath of office, but aides predicted that the policy, which he has championed since his first term in office, would become embroiled in a major lawsuit and ended birthright citizenship. They were seeking to create a deliberative process for the future. Implemented.
The order prohibits federal agencies from issuing documents affirming U.S. citizenship or approving documents that claim to recognize U.S. citizenship, according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN.
Applies to children born 30 days after the order is issued. This law applies to children born on U.S. soil to parents who are in the U.S. illegally or whose mother is temporarily in the U.S. on a visa and whose father is a non-citizen. .
This order hinges on the phrase “subject to jurisdiction” in the Fourteenth Amendment. Some immigration hardliners argue that children of illegal immigrants do not belong to U.S. “jurisdiction” and should not be considered citizens under the Constitution.
Legal experts previously told CNN they were skeptical that such an argument would fly in court, and that such relevant language would affect children of diplomats covered by U.S. law and foreign invaders. He claimed that it was aimed at the situation where some parts of the country were occupied. country.
Both the ACLU and the attorney general say it is legally easy to challenge and believe the merits are weighed heavily in their favor. This could be one of several of President Trump’s immigration policies that will be challenged in court.
“If not stopped in court, as I said, he is truly attacking the heart of American society, both with his attacks on birthright citizenship and with many of his other immigration enforcement activities.” says Cecilia Wang of National Legal Affairs. The director of the ACLU told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
ACLU and states are ready.
President Trump has predicted his desire to abolish birthright citizenship for years, and opponents have spent months preparing a legal challenge.
Plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit include expectant parents who “may be considered subject to the order,” according to the complaint.
The states argue in their own lawsuits that the order would strip citizenship from at least 150,000 children born to two parents without legal status.
They argue that because noncitizens cannot access federally funded health care, education, and other services, they must take on a greater financial role in providing services, which burdens the system.
“Under this order, children born on or after February 19, 2025, who would definitely have been considered citizens had they been born two days earlier, will be subject to no liability in the eyes of the federal government. It also has no legal standing,” the states argued in the lawsuit. “They will all be deported and many will become stateless.”
The states argue that affected children “will be denied access to myriad federal services available to their fellow citizens.” And even though the Constitution guarantees citizenship, they lack the right to participate in the economic and civic life of their country: the right to work, vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices. You will lose it. ”
The challenge filed by a small group of states in Seattle has sparked a similar debate about how those states could be burdened by the loss of federal funding if the order is allowed to go into effect. Ta.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
