Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of birthright citizenship. Raoul and a multistate coalition filed the brief in support of a legal challenge to President Trump’s unlawful effort to rewrite the Constitution and overturn federal law.

 On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump issued an executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for countless children born in the United States to immigrant parents, in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Attorney General Raoul and a group of states immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the order. The suit was successful, obtaining a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocked the executive order from ever taking effect.

 The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering Barbara v. Trump, a challenge to the executive order brought by a class of children who would lose citizenship if the order were to take effect. Raoul and the coalition’s brief, filed today in support of the plaintiffs, explains that the order violates the Citizenship Clause, binding Supreme Court precedent, and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“As a birthright citizen myself, born to an immigrant mother not yet naturalized at the time, the fight to preserve birthright citizenship is a personal one,” Raoul said. “As Attorney General, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and to protect the rights of all Illinois residents. I am proud to stand with my colleagues to defend the 14th Amendment, which was enshrined in our Constitution more than 150 years ago.”

As the amicus brief notes, birthright citizenship dates back centuries. The post-Civil War United States adopted the 14th Amendment to protect citizenship for children born in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the baby’s parents. In addition, Congress codified birthright citizenship into law twice, first in 1940 and then again in 1952.

Raoul and the attorneys general explain how the order would impose significant harms on states and their residents. If allowed to stand, this executive order — for the first time since the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 — would mean thousands of babies born each year who otherwise would be citizens will no longer enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizenship. Children stripped of their citizenship would lose their most basic rights and be forced to live under a threat of deportation. Some babies would be stateless, lacking a home country to return to.

 Being stripped of citizenship would also mean losing eligibility to a wide range of federal services and programs. They will lose their ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they will lose their right to vote, serve on juries and run for certain offices. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, thousands of children will — for the first time — lose their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as a citizen with all its benefits and privileges.

 The attorneys general assert that states will lose federal funding to programs they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance programs, which all consider, at least in part, the citizenship status of the resident being served. States will also be required, at considerable expense, to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change, which will impose significant burdens on multiple agencies that operate programs for the benefit of the states’ residents.

Joining Raoul in today’s filing are the attorneys general of, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as San Francisco.