Wash. AG Ferguson: We'll sue if Trump cold cocks 14th Amendment on citizenship

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson speaks with march Shorecrest High Schoo student Asher Maria during the "March for Our Lives" demonstration at Cal Anderson Park, Saturday, March 24, 2018. Hundreds of thousands marched in demonstrations across the country in support of gun legislation. Seattle protesters walked from Cal Anderson to the Seattle Center. less Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson speaks with march Shorecrest High Schoo student Asher Maria during the "March for Our Lives" demonstration at Cal Anderson Park, Saturday, March 24, 2018. Hundreds of ... more Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close Wash. AG Ferguson: We'll sue if Trump cold cocks 14th Amendment on citizenship 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

The state of Washington will go to court against the Trump Administration if the president tries to end birthright citizenship, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Tuesday.

"No matter how much he may want to appeal to the Alt-Right, President Trump can't alter the Constitution through executive order," Ferguson said in a statement.

"If he tries, we will immediately take him to court to defeat him again."

Under Ferguson, the state of Washington has sued or joined in 32 lawsuits against the Trump Administration. It scored a major federal court victory last year blocking the Trump Muslim Travel Ban No. 1. The state has won repeated victories against illegal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency efforts to delay or delete regulations.

It is unclear whether and how Trump would move against birth citizenship. Announced in pre-election interviews, the President's threatened action may simply be a sop to get far-right voters to cast ballots next Tuesday.

"We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits," Trump told an interviewer.

The claim is false: Both Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south, offer birthright citizenship, as do 28 other countries.

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Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan described Trump's threat as "morally and legally bankrupt."

"The President does not have the power to erase, revoke or rewrite our Constitution on the rights it guarantees," said Durkan, a former U.S. Attorney for Western Washington.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is retiring from Congress, told a radio interviewer in Wisconsin: "You obviously cannot do that."

Why not? The 14th Amendment, which states:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."

The Amendment also includes the right to due process and equal protection, both widely held as vital clauses. What's more, the Amendment was borne out of Reconstruction after the Civil War, for the first time guaranteeing citizenship to the descendants of slaves.

Reversing the amendment, as was done with the 18th Amendment on Prohibition, would require a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress, and ratification by two-thirds of the states . . . or a constitutional convention called by the states.

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Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, a water-carrier for Trump in Congress, announced Tuesday he would introduce legislation to end birthright citizenship.

Ferguson has been a leader among Democratic attorneys general, who have emerged as a major source of legal resistance to Trump's executive orders and efforts to undermine environmental and workplace protections. The ranks of these Democratic AGs are likely to expand with next Tuesday's election.