SEATTLE, WA – Washington Attorney General Nick Brown issued a statement harshly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 Friday ruling that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions to block enforcement of executive orders, including getting rid of birthright citizenship. Brown called the ruling “disappointing on many levels.”
The high court’s ruling allows President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect in some areas of the country by limiting the power of judges to block the president’s policies nationwide.
Brown said his office continues to believe that Trump’s order is “unconstitutional and cruel” and must be stopped to guarantee protection for Washingtonians.
“This morning’s order does not dispute the issue we handily won in the trial court – that President Trump’s attempt to strip birthright citizenship is unlawful and wrong,” Brown said in a statement.
The Trump administration can implement its birthright citizenship executive order, but must wait 30 days before trying to deny anyone citizenship.
Brown’s office filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Western Washington on Jan. 21, claiming Trump’s executive order would affect thousands of children born in the U.S. to parents living in the country illegally. Those children are currently granted automatic citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Oregon, Arizona, and Illinois joined Washington’s complaint.
The 14th Amendment – ratified in 1868 – states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Eric McArthur, deputy assistant attorney general for the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division, previously argued on behalf of the Trump administration that illegal aliens did not exist when the U.S. ratified the 14th Amendment. Trump’s executive order argues that the 14th Amendment’s protections for citizens apply to those “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
More than 300 lawsuits have been brought against the administration in its first five months, with federal judges issuing 40 nationwide injunctions against its policies, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“GIANT WIN in the United States Supreme Court!” the president wrote in a social media post. “Even the Birthright Citizenship Hoax has been, indirectly, hit hard. It had to do with the babies of slaves (same year!), not the SCAMMING of our Immigration process.”
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called the Supreme Court’s decision “breathtakingly misguided” and said it will “create chaos, irreparable damage, and uneven application of the law across the country.”
The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, meaning any class action lawsuits will be required to be filed in multiple courts.
“No matter how hard the Trump Administration tries to undo it with the stroke of a pen, it remains wholly unconstitutional, and we will never give up the fight to rein in this unconstitutional action,” Jayapal said.
