(The Center Square) – Litigation against President Donald Trump’s executive order tied to birthright citizenship has been joined by North Carolina’s attorney general.
Jeff Jackson, in a release, said the move is a “straightforward violation of the 14th Amendment.” Jackson, a first-term Democrat previously a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld it previously.
“The Constitution leaves no room for executive reinterpretation on this matter – it is clear, settled, and binding,” Jackson said. “This order seeks to undermine that clarity, creating legal uncertainty and denying fundamental rights to children born in this country.”
There is contrast in Jackson’s option to join and for three other states. North Carolinians, as they have 13 of the last 15 presidential elections, sent the state’s electoral college votes with Trump in a 50.9%-47.7% win over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Other states in addition to North Carolina joining the lawsuit with a Democratic attorney general but having voted Republican for Trump are Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada. All four were considered among the seven battlegrounds, swept 93-0 in electoral college votes by Trump.
Trump’s order points out the 14th “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’” An example of not subject to jurisdiction would be, he says, “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.”
Eighteen states, the District of Columbia, San Francisco and San Francisco County are plaintiffs against Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and three others in interim capacities leading the agencies of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Social Security Administration.
The state attorneys general are all recognized as Democrats in their position, with exception of Hawaii’s Anne Lopez. The office in her state is deemed nonpartisan. San Francisco, as a city, is represented by the city attorney rather than an attorney general; David Chiu is also a Democrat.
The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.