Dozens of Republican AGs file brief with Supreme Court challenging birthright citizenship

Twenty-five Republican attorneys general have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, challenging birthright citizenship.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti was joined on the brief on Friday by Iowa's attorney general and 23 others: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

“The idea that citizenship is guaranteed to everyone born in the United States doesn’t square with the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment or the way many government officials and legal analysts understood the law when it was adopted after the Civil War,” Skrmetti said in a statement on Friday.

“If you look at the law at the time, citizenship attached to kids whose parents were lawfully in the country. Each child born in this country is precious no matter their parents’ immigration status, but not every child is entitled to American citizenship. This case could allow the Supreme Court to resolve a constitutional question with far-reaching implications for the States and our nation.”

The Republican AGs are siding with the Trump administration in urging the Supreme Court "to clarify that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not provide automatic citizenship to everyone born in the United States. The States argue that lower courts have misinterpreted the Citizenship Clause to require automatic citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ residency and immigration status," according to Skrmetti's office.

The amicus brief includes "historical evidence from the 1860s through the early 1900s" to support its interpretation of the 14th Amendment, the Tennessee AG's office said.