New Jersey attorney general leads multistate effort defending birthright citizenship at Supreme Court

States argue Trump order would violate Constitution, strip citizenship from thousands of U.S.-born children

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is leading a coalition of state attorneys general urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve birthright citizenship, arguing that a Trump administration executive order seeking to limit citizenship for some children born in the United States violates the Constitution and federal law.

The filing comes as the high court considers Barbara v. Trump, a case challenging a 2025 executive order issued by President Donald Trump that would deny automatic citizenship to certain children born in the United States to immigrant parents. The order has been blocked nationwide by lower courts while legal challenges proceed.

In an amicus brief submitted alongside 24 other states and jurisdictions, Davenport and her counterparts argue the order conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and longstanding Supreme Court precedent affirming that children born on U.S. soil are citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

“New Jersey continues to lead the way in defending our birthright citizens and the rule of law from attacks coming out of Washington,” Davenport said in a statement. She accused the president of attempting to “strip countless American babies of their citizenship” in violation of constitutional protections and federal statutes.

Birthright citizenship was enshrined after the Civil War through the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868 following the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to descendants of enslaved people. The coalition’s brief notes that Congress later codified birthright citizenship into federal law in 1940 and again in 1952 through the Immigration and Nationality Act.

State officials warn that allowing the order to take effect would have sweeping consequences. Thousands of children born annually in New Jersey could be denied citizenship, leaving some at risk of deportation or potentially stateless, according to the filing. Those children could lose eligibility for federal programs, access to Social Security numbers, and the ability to work legally or vote as adults.

The coalition also argues the policy would impose financial and administrative burdens on states, which rely on citizenship status to administer programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance. States would face new costs to modify benefits systems and could lose federal funding tied to eligible residents, the brief states.

Although the executive order applies prospectively, the attorneys general warn that its legal reasoning could eventually place the citizenship status of other Americans in doubt.

Joining New Jersey in the filing are attorneys general from Washington, California, New York, Massachusetts, and more than a dozen other states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco.

The Supreme Court has not yet announced when it will hear arguments or issue a decision.