For Immediate Release:
October 27, 2025
For press inquiries only, contact:
Amanda Priest (334) 322-5694
William Califf (334) 604-3230
(Montgomery, Ala) – Attorney General Steve Marshall joined a coalition of 24 states filing a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of President Trump’s birthright citizenship policy.
On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order halting the recognition of citizenship for individuals born in the United States to illegal immigrants or temporary visitors. Following litigation over the policy in lower courts, the United States has asked the Supreme Court to step in.
The states’ brief supports that request, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was originally intended to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children—not to automatically confer citizenship on children of illegal aliens or temporary visitors to the United States. The brief also emphasizes that states bear significant costs from illegal immigration, including economic burdens and significant public safety concerns.
“The Constitution is not a loophole for illegal immigration,” Attorney General Marshall said. “The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment did not mean for citizenship to be granted by mere accident of birth. Citizenship belongs to those who share allegiance to our nation, reserved for the children of American citizens and lawful permanent residents, not those present unlawfully or temporarily. President Trump’s order rightly restores the true intent of the Citizenship Clause, and we urge the Supreme Court to affirm that principle.”
Alabama joined the Tennessee and Iowa co-led brief along with 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, filed in the consolidated cases Trump v. Washington and Trump v. Barbara, can be read here.
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