Maine is joining 17 states, the District of Columbia and the city of Francisco in a lawsuit targeting President Donald Trump’s order overturning birthright citizenship.
That comes on the heels of another lawsuit from the Maine ACLU and other organizations filed Monday night in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire that contends Trump both exceeded his authority as president and violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
Under the order, signed after Trump’s inauguration on Monday, anyone born to a mother not lawfully present in the United States would be denied citizenship.
Citizenship was extended to everyone born in the U.S. under Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that interpretation in a 6-2 ruling that decided that a man, Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco to Chinese noncitizens living in the country was, in fact, a citizen and could not be denied reentry into the country under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
“It was anticipated that the President would issue this unconstitutional block on citizenship, but that does not make it any less disappointing,” Attorney General Frey said in a statement Tuesday. “The election did not change the Constitution and legal action is required to remind the President that his oath is to uphold that sacred document, not rewrite it.”
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Frey’s office said the order will harm “hundreds of thousands of American children,” denying them the ability to obtain a Social Security number, the right to vote, the ability to serve on juries, to run for office and to work lawfully, all while living under the threat of deportation.
Furthermore, the lawsuit contends that the order will harm states, causing them to lose federal funds for programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and foster care and adoption assistance.
The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, seeks to invalidate the executive order and requested a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the administration from taking actions to implement it.
The other states suing over the executive order include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco.
