Attorney General Ellison sues to block unconstitutional executive order on birthright citizenship
Joins coalition of 22 jurisdictions in suing to defend basic constitutional rights for all Americans
January 21, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today announced that he and the attorneys general of 20 states along with the City of San Francisco have sued to block President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional executive order that purports to end birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Supreme Court has twice ruled that birthright citizenship extends to everyone born in the United States, including the children of immigrants regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
In their lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition of attorneys general ask the court to invalidate the executive order and block any actions taken to implement it. They request immediate relief to prevent the President’s order from taking effect.
“Only hours ago, the President swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, then broke it almost as soon as he took it. I am using the power of my office and the law to join with other state attorneys general from coast to coast to quickly and clearly bring suit to stop this unprecedented, blatant breach of the Constitution by a President,” Attorney General Ellison said. “For more than 125 years, the Supreme Court has clearly interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to eliminate any doubt or confusion that anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a U.S. citizen. Duly passed federal laws that the President and his advisors are well aware of clearly spell this out as well. I look forward to the court putting a stop to this blatantly unconstitutional order as soon as possible.”
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition explain that birthright citizenship dates back centuries, even to before the Civil War and the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in its aftermath. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious 1857 decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves, the post-Civil War United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizenship for all children born in the country. Attorney General Ellison and the coalition point out that the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the newborn’s parents.
According to a 2025 analysis by the National Demographics Corporation, in 2022, an estimated 153,000 children nationwide were born to two parents who were noncitizens and lacked legal status. This is a conservative estimate of the number of children who would be harmed by the Executive Order because it does not account for Children whose parents at birth may be lawfully present but on a temporary basis or whose fathers at birth are conditional permanent residents.
If allowed to stand, this Executive Order — for the first time since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 — would means that these children would be deprived of the privileges and benefits of citizenship, despite the Constitution’s guarantee, and would lose their ability to fully and fairly contribute to American society. This would include losing their ability to obtain a Social Security number and work lawfully as they age; their eligibility for a wide range of federal programs; their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices; and more. The individuals who are stripped of their United States citizenship would be suddenly forced to live under the threat of deportation, yet many would be stateless with no clear citizenship in any country.
In addition to harming hundreds of thousands of families, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition explain in their filing that today’s order would significantly harm Minnesota and the states themselves, too. Among other things, this order would cause Minnesota and 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. Minnesota and the states would also be required — on no notice and at considerable expense to taxpayers — 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. Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that the states should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds because the order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions: United States v. Wong Kim Ark of 1898 and Plyler v. Doe of 1982.
Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing today’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District Massachusetts are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the City and County of San Francisco. The attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington filed an identical lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
