Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and 23 counterparts filed an amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara, the Supreme Court case examining the validity of the executive order — issued on Trump's first day in office in 2025 — which the AGs contend unlawfully strips citizenship from children born in the United States to immigrant parents in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The case reaches the Court after a series of preliminary injunctions blocked the order from taking effect. States including Connecticut filed suits in the Western District of Washington and the District of Massachusetts, both of which resulted in nationwide injunctions. The Supreme Court is now considering the order's validity in the context of a challenge brought by a class of children who would lose citizenship under it, in the related proceeding Barbara v. Trump.
In their joint statement, the attorneys general said: "The President's executive order redefining birthright citizenship violates our Constitution, federal statutes, and the rule that has governed our Nation for more than 150 years. We were proud to lead the fight against this unlawful order, and grateful for the injunctions we obtained that prevented this action from ever taking effect. We are optimistic the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with every judge to consider this executive order on the merits and hold that it violates this fundamental constitutional right."
The AGs' brief traces birthright citizenship to the post-Civil War adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in part to overturn the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which had denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves. Congress subsequently codified birthright citizenship into statute in 1940 and again in 1952.
If the order were allowed to stand, the AGs warn, thousands of babies born each year who would otherwise be citizens would lose that status — the first such exclusion since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868.
Tong, who was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1973 and became the first United States citizen in his immediate family by right of his birth on American soil, described the fight as personal. He was at the Supreme Court for oral arguments on the case on May 15.
The coalition includes the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.