NJ Sues Trump Over Ending Birthright Citizenship

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey and 17 other states are challenging President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship in the United States.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading a lawsuit that seeks to block Trump's order from taking effect, saying it violates a constitutional right that has been in existence for over 150 years. Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

"If allowed to stand, this Order—for the first time since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868—would mean thousands of babies born each year in New Jersey who otherwise would have been citizens will no longer enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizenship," Platkin's office said Tuesday.

Trump’s order excludes the following people from automatic citizenship: those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.

This new lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal court, seeks a preliminary injunction against the executive order.

“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” Platkin said.

Also joining the lawsuit were California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco.

Gov. Phil Murphy said the announcement "flouts the Constitution and will needlessly harm families who are lawfully present in the United States."

“The Constitution could not be more clear: citizenship of children born in the United States does not depend on the citizenship of their parents," Murphy said. "That principle is fundamental to who we are as a nation and what it means to be an American."

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a separate lawsuit on Monday to challenge the executive order, calling it an "egregious" overreach.

Amol Sinha, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said Trump's administration "does not have the power to override the Constitution" and expressed gratitude that Platkin was also defending birthright citizenship.

“It’s clear that New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," Sinha said. "Instead, our state will lead by example in defending civil rights and liberties for all who call it home.”