PHOENIX — President Donald Trump has signed more than 100 executive orders since his inauguration, with many facing legal challenges from states, including Arizona.
Arizona has become a litigant in 12 lawsuits against the Trump administration, beginning the day after he took office.
One of the most controversial executive orders attempts to redefine birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. The order prohibits federal agencies from issuing U.S. citizenship documents to children born on U.S. soil to parents who are unlawfully present in the country, or where one parent is on a visa and the other is a non-citizen.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes responded after joining the lawsuit challenging the order.
"This lawless order is not only nakedly unconstitutional, it is an attack on families and children in this state and across this country," Mayes said.
Constitutional attorney Robert McWhirter explained the legal foundation for birthright citizenship.
"The 14th Amendment says that any person born in the United States or in a State of the Union shall be a citizen in the United States," McWhirter said. "It is very clear. And actually, the origin of birthright citizenship in America is not even the 14th Amendment, which was passed in 1868, but actually, before that, the
common law of America was birthright citizenship."
Arizona has also joined other states in a lawsuit attempting to stop the dismantling of the Department of Education after Trump signed an executive order on March 20 to close the department and return education authority to the states.
"If the president wants to reform the Department of Education, he can do so through Congress," Mayes said.
McWhirter highlighted the constitutional issues with this executive action.
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"The Department of Education was created by Congress," McWhirter said. "It was created by an act of Congress. Only Congress can dismantle an agency that they have created. Also, there's the other problem too, which is Congress has allocated funds already for programs in the Department of Education, and the fact that Donald Trump is not implementing or using those funds is directly violative of Article Two of the Constitution."
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by President Trump to cut federal spending, has remained in the headlines for slashing the federal workforce.
"I thought it was a really good meeting, it was about cutting because everybody knows the country is way out of control in terms of the number of people. We have many people who don't work," Trump said in an interview with ABC News.
Attorney General Mayes is pushing back against these mass layoffs that could potentially affect tens of thousands of federally employed Arizonans. She specifically took exception to billionaire Elon Musk overseeing the cuts.
"They actually put into the American Constitution an appointments clause that says, if you're going to have a person who reports to you who is engaged in such important and you know, large scale activities as Elon Musk now is, you must have that position first created by Congress and approved by Congress," Mayes said.
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