Twenty four Democratic-led states and cities in the United States are challenging President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship in court, a major constitutional challenge to one of the White House’s signature policies.
The lawsuits allege that a Trump executive order signed Monday 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 Tuesday, the attorneys general of Washington, Arizona, Oregon and Illinois brought 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, a traditionally left-leaning court that has become less liberal in recent years.
Both suits are also seeking a preliminary order blocking the policy before the Trump administration can take steps to implement it.
Similar lawsuits targeting Trump’s order were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigration rights groups on Monday.
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