Less than a week into a new presidential administration, civil rights lawyers are already lining up for a legal battle to keep intact the 14th Amendment.

Less than a week into a new presidential administration, civil rights lawyers are already lining up for a legal battle to keep intact the 14th Amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship in the United States. Almost immediately after President Trump took office for his second term, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the President’s executive order to do away with protections for newly born children in the U.S.

“Birthright citizenship is guaranteed in our Constitution and is absolutely central to what America stands for,” says Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in this case. “Denying citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil is illegal, profoundly cruel, and contrary to our values as a country.”

Several additional lawsuits were filed to stop the order, including one by Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown who called the action "unconstitutional, un-American, and cruel."

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle temporarily blocked the order today, calling the executive order "blatantly unconstitutional."

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