Attorney General Phil Weiser challenges unconstitutional executive order ending birthright citizenship

Jan. 21, 2025 (DENVER)—Attorney General Phil Weiser today announced that he and a coalition of attorneys general are challenging a White House executive order (opens new tab) ending birthright citizenship, which violates the constitutional rights that all children born in the United States are entitled to.

“The White House executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship is flatly unconstitutional. The idea that a president could override the Constitution with the stoke of a pen is a flagrant assault on the rule of law and our constitutional republic,” said Weiser. “The executive order cannot be allowed to stand, and I will fight to ensure that all who are born in the United States keep their right to fully and fairly be a part of American society as a citizen with all its benefits and privileges.”

President Trump yesterday issued an executive order fulfilling his repeated promise to end birthright citizenship, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. To stop this unlawful action, Weiser is filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to invalidate the executive order and to stop any actions to implement it.

As the lawsuit explains, birthright citizenship dates back centuries—including to pre-Civil War America. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious Dred Scott decision denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves, the Fourteenth Amendment plainly protects citizenship for children born in the country, honoring our national motto of e pluribus unum—out of many, we are one. Since adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the baby’s parents.

Under the President’s executive order, individuals who are stripped of their U.S. citizenship lose their most basic rights and are threatened with the risk of deportation. Under this order, these individuals will 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. And they will lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices.

In addition to harming hundreds of thousands of residents, the states’ filing explains that today’s order significantly harms the states themselves. Among other things, this order will cause the states to lose federal funding to programs that they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance programs, which all turn at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. States will also be required—on no notice and at 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.

Those joining Colorado in today’s filing include California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the City and County of San Francisco.

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