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Published on January 21, 2025
New York AG Letitia James and Allies Launch Legal Blitz Against Trump's Birthright Citizenship AxeSource: Google Street View

In a decisive move to uphold constitutional rights, New York Attorney General Letitia James, backed by a coalition of 18 states and the City of San Francisco, is taking President Donald Trump's administration to task over an Executive Order that seeks to end birthright citizenship. According to a press release from the New York Attorney General's office, this legal confrontation is aimed at defending the 14th Amendment and the birthright it guarantees to every child born in the United States.

The legal rebuttal to Trump's directive was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where Attorney General James and her counterparts argue that the Executive Order is not only unconstitutional but it also, jeopardizes the wellbeing of American children, as detailed by the New York Attorney General's office. "The great promise of our nation is that everyone born here is a citizen of the United States, able to achieve the American dream," Attorney General James stated, underscoring the profound implications of the federal action. The states have solicited immediate relief through a Preliminary Injunction to prevent the Order from becoming operative.

Birthright citizenship has been an unshakeable tenet since its establishment in post-Civil War America, striking a sharp contrast to the Dred Scott case that precluded descendants of slaves from this fundamental right. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice fortified this principle, and it stands independently of parental immigration status. If the Executive Order were to take effect, starting February 19, it would strip citizenship from babies born to certain visa holders or undocumented parents – an unprecedented roll-back of rights.

This legal challenge is supported by a significant ensemble of states, including California, Colorado, and Connecticut, among others, as well as the City of San Francisco. These states and local governments claim that the speculated measure would force countless children to grow up without the certainty of belonging to the land of their birth, resulting in a range of societal and personal hindrances. They assert that the children affected would be stripped of basic federal benefits, and crucially, their right to vote, and serve on juries, and even run for certain offices in the future.

Handling this critical matter for New York is a team led by Special Counsel for Immigrant Justice Zoe Levine, with the support of the First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy. The legal offensive against the Executive Order showcases a unified stance among the concerned states, each seeking to sustain the tenets of the U.S. Constitution and protect the promise that birthright citizenship embodies for all those born on American soil.