AG Jennings announces victory at Supreme Court on birthright citizenship

Attorney General Kathy Jennings released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court siding with her and her fellow Attorneys General over the Trump Administration on the issue of birthright citizenship:

"When President Trump took office in 2025, he immediately issued a flood of flagrantly unconstitutional and illegal executive orders. In a matter of days, I and my fellow Attorneys General began filing lawsuits to stop him. We have filed more than 50 lawsuits and have overwhelmingly succeeded. That continued today in the Supreme Court.

Our first lawsuit was to block the President's obscene attempt to dismantle birthright citizenship-a constitutional guarantee issued in the wake of the fight against slavery, and which in the years since has been the first chapter in millions of American families' stories. The birthright case completely embodied the heart of what was, and continues to be, at stake in the fight to stop this Administration's overreach: this country's identity as a nation of laws and a family of immigrants. The Supreme Court's ruling is a victory on both counts.

The Court affirmed today two simple and undeniable truths: first, the President is subordinate to the Constitution, not the other way around. Second, immigration is a fundamental, irrevocable, and explicit pillar of the American experiment.

While today represents a decisive victory for the Constitution and the rule of law, it is troubling that the Court agonized for so long over what amounted to a straightforward reading of the 14th Amendment. This was not a complicated case: no serious lawyer believes that the President can nullify a constitutional provision with the stroke of a pen; the fact that 4 justices disagreed is a shameful spectacle of a once-proud institution's capture by extremist interest groups like the Heritage Foundation and its genuflection to executive whim. It is not lost on me that, on the same day we breathe relief on basic constitutional affirmations, those justices also issued rulings that stripped transgender individuals of their fundamental rights and weakened our already anemic campaign finance laws. The fight is far from over.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this historic victory for the Constitution and the rule of law, and for the tireless work of our staff and my fellow Attorneys General on this case. I will continue to fight any and all lawlessness by this Administration wherever it may rear its head."

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