Letitia James took Donald Trump to court after he became President for this insane reason
New York State Attorney General Letitia James won’t give up her lawfare against Donald Trump.
James ignored the lesson coming out of the 2024 election.
And now Letitia James took Donald Trump to court after he became President for this insane reason.
On his first day in office, Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders.
One of the cornerstones of this “shock and awe” campaign was an order ending birthright citizenship.
Congress and states ratified the 14th Amendment after the Civil War to correct the horror of the Dred Scott decision and to guarantee American citizenship for newly freed slaves.
Trump’s order explained that applying birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens – known as anchor babies – misapplied the provision of the 14th Amendment that defined citizenship.
“But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” the order read.
“Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text,” Trump’s order continued.
The executive order outlined two classifications of individuals who were not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and thus not eligible for birthright citizenship.
(1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth
(2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” the order went on to say.
Trump didn’t try to blanket end birthright citizenship.
What Trump proposed was a narrowly tailored order to specifically carve out illegal aliens from birthright citizenship.
No one in their right mind would argue Congress and state legislatures that ratified the 14th Amendment would have intended it to mean if someone just simply showed up on American soil and had a child that conferred American citizenship.
But Democrats are determined to die on the hill of open borders.
It only took hours for Democrat State Attorneys General to sue Trump to protect the idea of anchor babies, automatically receiving birthright citizenship.
Letitia James was among the 22 Democrat Attorneys General that sued Trump in Washington State and Massachusetts to block the order.
In a statement posted to X, James claimed she was ready to weaponize cherry picked judges to thwart Trump’s effort to secure the border.
“My office and a multistate coalition are suing to immediately stop President Trump’s dangerous and unconstitutional order trying to end birthright citizenship,” James wrote.
“We will protect the integrity of our Constitution, its fundamental rights, and the promise of the American dream,” James added.
This issue of birthright citizenship has never been litigated before.
And it’s surely headed to the Supreme Court.
