Delaware, 17 other states file suit to defend Americans’ 14th Amendment rights
Source: DOJ
Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced that Delaware and 17 other states—along with Washington, D.C. and San Francisco—are challenging President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, which violates the constitutional rights of all children born in the United States.
“We are a nation of immigrants, and a nation of laws; this executive order flies in the face of both,” said Attorney General Jennings. “The president is subordinate to the Constitution, not the other way around, and here the Constitution is unambiguous. We are taking action to defend not only American children — who deserve the same rights and opportunities as me, the president and everyone else — but the institutions that restored this country after the Civil War.”
President Trump today issued an executive order fulfilling his repeated promise to end birthright citizenship, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. To stop the President’s unlawful action, which violates the Constitution and will harm hundreds of thousands of American children, Attorney General Jennings is filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to invalidate the executive order and to halt any actions taken to implement it. The states request immediate relief to prevent the President’s Order from taking effect through both a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction.
Birthright citizenship dates back centuries—including to pre-Civil War America, with the rare and ignominious exception of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott, which denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves. The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, effectively rejected the Dred Scott ruling by protecting citizenship for children born in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the baby’s parents.
If allowed to stand, this Executive Order would, for the first time since 1868, deny citizenship rights to as many as 700 babies born each year in Delaware.
Those stripped of their United States citizenship lose their most basic rights. They are forced to live under the threat of deportation; they lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs; their ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully; they lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for office. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, thousands of children would—for the first time since slavery—be denied that guarantee, with all its rights and privileges.
The States’ filing explains that, in addition to harming hundreds of thousands of residents, today’s order significantly harms the States themselves. Among other things, this Order will cause the States to lose federal funding for programs that they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance programs, all of which rely at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. States will also be required—on no notice and at its considerable expense—to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change, which will require significant burdens for multiple agencies that operate programs for the benefit of the States’ residents. The States’ filing explains that they should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds, because the Order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Jurisdictions joining Delaware in today’s filing include New Jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and the City of San Francisco.
