Attorney General Brown and a coalition of Attorneys General issue Joint Statement on Supreme Court Birthright Citizenship Oral Arguments

SEATTLE — Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of attorneys general issued the following statement after the Supreme Court's hearing on birthright citizenship:

“We were proud to stand together to defend birthright citizenship and the rule of law at the U.S. Supreme Court today. 

"For 127 years, since the Supreme Court settled the issue, the law has been clear: if you are born in this country, you are a citizen of the United States and of our States. 

"Administrations of both parties have consistently respected that right ever since. As every court to have considered the policy agrees, the President’s attempt to end birthright citizenship is patently unconstitutional. 

"The Trump Administration’s argument before the Supreme Court today—that the President should be permitted to strip American citizenship from people based solely on the state in which they happen to be born—would upend settled law and settled practice and would produce widespread chaos and disruption.

"The President cannot rewrite the Constitution and contradict the Supreme Court’s own holdings with the stroke of a pen.”

Joining Attorney General Brown in issuing the statement are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.