Jackson joins other Democrat AGs suing over Trump birthright citizenship order

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson has joined Democrats serving as AG in 17 other states and the District of Columbia in a new federal lawsuit challenging President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship.

The suit filed in a Massachusetts federal court also has support from the San Francisco city attorney.

“Plaintiffs bring this action to protect their states, localities, and residents from the President’s flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage,” according to the lawsuit.

Laura Howard, Jackson’s chief deputy attorney general, and Associate Deputy Attorney General Daniel Mosteller are listed among the lawyers supporting the suit. Other states participating in the complaint are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

“The principle of birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years,” the complaint continued. “The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment unambiguously and expressly confers citizenship on ‘[a]ll persons born’ in and ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States. More than 125 years ago, the Supreme Court confirmed that this entitles a child born in the United States to noncitizen parents to automatic citizenship.”

“Congress subsequently codified that understanding in the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1401). And the Executive Branch has long recognized that any attempt to deny citizenship to children based on their parents’ citizenship or immigration status would be ‘unquestionably unconstitutional,’” the lawsuit added.

“President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle by executive fiat. Just hours after taking office, he signed an executive order titled ‘Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,’ … which declares that birthright citizenship does not extend to any child born in the United States to a mother who is unlawfully present or lawfully present on a temporary basis and a father who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident. On the basis of this unlawful declaration, the President prescribes that the federal government shall not issue or recognize any document recognizing citizenship for any such child born after February 19, 2025,” the Democratic AGs wrote.

“The President has no authority to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment or duly enacted statute. Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth,” the complaint argued.

The post Jackson joins other Democrat AGs suing over Trump birthright citizenship order first appeared on Carolina Journal.