TN Attorney General Skrmetti Files Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court in Defense of President Donald Trump's Birthright Citizenship Executive Order

NASHVILLE—Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an amicus brief today in the United States Supreme Court supporting President Trump’s application to stay sweeping preliminary injunctions by multiple district courts in cases addressing birthright citizenship.  The amicus brief stresses that courts should interpret the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution in accordance with its original public meaning and should only exercise their judicial power within the confines of specific cases and controversies and consistent with principles of separation of powers.

“Courts are empowered by the Constitution to resolve cases and controversies, not to issue sweeping policy proclamations or manage the executive branch,” said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “The American people are the ultimate source of authority and legitimacy for every branch of our government, and every court interpreting the Constitution must therefore adhere to the understanding of the voters who adopted the constitutional language. Undermining the sovereignty of the American people through judicial overreach threatens to alienate the people from our constitutional system and thereby cause grievous harm to liberty and public order. Our system depends on checks and balances and each branch of government, at both the federal and state levels, is by design intended to push back against overreach by the other branches. That tension between branches is how we prevent the concentration of undue power in any one place and thus keep Americans free.  We look forward to the Supreme Court clarifying these fundamental issues and will continue to litigate strategically to advance the interests of Tennessee.”

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, over nine million illegal aliens have entered our country in just the past few years.  After crossing the border, many illegal aliens have moved into interior states like Tennessee. This voluminous influx has caused significant strain on resources and poses ongoing economic, health, and public safety challenges for Tennessee and many other states. While lax border security in the past caused much of the problem, it was incentivized and compounded by an expansive interpretation of the Citizenship Clause which is not consistent with numerous sources contemporaneous with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has never squarely addressed the scope of the Citizenship Clause, though government actors have for decades operated under the assumption that the clause guarantees birthright citizenship in almost all circumstances.

To combat these illegal crossings, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders. After signing the executive order titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, three federal judges issued nationwide preliminary injunctions freezing the President’s executive order and ruling that it violated the Citizenship Clause.

In this amicus brief, Attorney General Skrmetti provides evidence of the original public meaning of the Citizenship Clause by pointing to historical evidence from the Reconstruction Period and immediately thereafter. He also notes the ongoing challenge of overly broad injunctions and highlights instances when they have adversely affected Tennessee. Reinforcing core constitutional principles helps protect Tennesseans by ensuring that federal courts do not unduly interfere with the State’s democratically-adopted laws.

You can read Attorney General Skrmetti’s amicus brief here.

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