Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti speaks at the Franklin Theatre, May 8, 2023
Tennessee has joined 23 other states challenging birthright citizenship in the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to a release, plaintiffs in the case are “urging the Court to clarify that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not provide automatic citizenship to everyone born in the United States,” arguing that lower courts have “misinterpreted” the clause.
“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,” says Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in the news release, adding “each child born in this country is precious no matter their parents’ immigration status, but not every child is entitled to American citizenship.”
The case was brought by attorneys general from Iowa, Tennessee, 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 brief can be read in full online here.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, states in part that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The amendment has long been a target of Republicans who aim to reduce immigration to the country.
