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1/22/2025
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Rep. Diaz lauds attorney general for lawsuit fighting executive order curtailing birthright citizenship
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STATE HOUSE — Rep. Grace Diaz (D-Dist. 11, Providence) says she stands behind Attorney General Peter Neronha and his decision to pursue a lawsuit against President Donald Trump to stop an executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
“The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment is one of the clearest sentences in America’s Constitution,” said Representative Diaz. “For a sitting president to attempt to flagrantly circumvent the United States Constitution is dangerous and unthinkable. I congratulate Attorney General Peter Neronha for so quickly joining those states who have resolved to fight this attempt to nullify constitutional law.”
The 14th Amendment was adopted by the states in the wake of the Civil War, effectively nullifying an 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford) holding that Americans descended from African slaves could not be U.S. citizens. The Amendment, in part, reads 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.”
“While much of the Constitution is open to broad interpretation, this sentence could not be more straightforward,” said Representative Diaz. “This executive order is illegal, antagonistic and, at its very heart, racist. It serves no other purpose than to disenfranchise an entire group of American citizens who should be accorded the same rights as everyone else — rights that have been indelibly etched into our country’s fundamental law.”
For more information, contact:
Daniel Trafford, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-1922
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