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 President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining 

 two days after Minnesota joined 21 other states in a lawsuit to chall

This was the first in what’s likely to be a flurry of lawsuits from Democratic Attorneys General as they implement a plan that began taking shape long before Americans elected Trump. 

Last summer, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told The New York Times he’d been preparing for a Trump White House since early 2023. 

Ellison spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about his strategy and how it has changed since Trump’s first term.

The transcript below has been edited lightly for clarity. Click the player above to hear the interview.

A legal expert we spoke to said attempts to restrict birthright citizenship are likely to fail if challenged in court. Why spend time and money fighting something that likely won’t happen?

Because we’ve got to stand up for the rights of Americans all the time. People’s rights are fluid, hard fought. People marched, protested, litigated and legislated to establish rights for Americans of all kinds. And if you just sit around and figure, “Oh, this is going to be fine,” you may find yourself surprised. 

We thought that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land and all precedent pointed toward it being upheld — and then that changed. 

So yeah, we have to stand up for Americans’ rights. Birthright citizenship has been a part of American law since the 14th Amendment, which was established well over 100 years ago. And now that it’s being threatened, we have to stand up and defend it. 

I mean, the people are guardians of the law, guardians of our civil rights and liberties. We have to stand up and point out the proper precedence to the court. 

I’m curious about your tactics. Trump won a second term. And this time, instead of protesting, we see the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which you’re a member of, putting up more legal resistance to Trump’s moves.

Trump had been president two years before I started as attorney general. I think even he was surprised he won the first time. So a lot of the legal challenges that happened didn’t happen immediately. 

Although I will point out that his so-called ‘Muslim ban’ was challenged in court right away. And then there were literally hundreds of challenges that did take place last time and Democratic attorneys generals won 80 percent of the time. 

I do anticipate this time around, the Trump administration will be better prepared. But those of us who swear an oath to uphold the rule of law and support the Constitution, we’re not going to just let things go by. I anticipate there will be as many challenges as there needs to be to protect Americans’ and Minnesotans’ rights.

What do you say to Minnesotans, especially those who voted for Trump, who say, “Look, why doesn’t the Minnesota Attorney General’s office focus more on state-specific issues like Medicaid fraud in Minnesota?”

Well, we are doing that. We prosecuted literally millions of dollars in Medicaid fraud. We have a very good Medicaid fraud unit in Minnesota and I’d love to come on the show and talk all about it sometime. We have a good story to tell.

But we can’t only do one thing. The Minnesota Attorney General’s office has to represent over 100 state agencies, boards and commissions, and then has to represent consumers, and has to help counties prosecute crimes. 

We don’t just do one thing. We do many things. That’s the design of the office. So, we’re doing this, too.

What other issues might we expect the Democratic Attorneys General Association to wade into? What other issues can Minnesotans expect your office to battle?

As a general principle, wherever there is a right that Americans have enjoyed for over 100 years and is enshrined in the Constitution — you could pretty much expect that we’re going to stand up and say, “Wait a minute, we’re going to follow the Constitution here.” 

And there are a lot of other things. There are workers’ rights. There has been an executive order that would essentially change the civil service system in federal government. Many federal workers work in Minnesota. They inspect meat. They inspect water. They do all kinds of very important jobs that we rely on every day. Yet, there’s an executive order that would change that. So, we’re looking at that one. 

Then there are others. One of the things that the President has said is that he’s going to eliminate the existence of transgender people. Now, these folks are members of our community. They have a right to exist. They have a right to live and have civil rights. So, we’re going to be looking into how to protect them. 

There are a lot of environmental changes that have been proposed. Look, Los Angeles is still smoldering. Yet, we’re going to “Drill, baby, drill,” and we’re going to get rid of the electric vehicle mandate? We’re going to do all these things that are going to make our environment less safe? 

So we’re going to be looking at a range of things. But everything we do is to just fulfill that oath of upholding the Constitution.

Cathy Wurzer

Host

Megan Burks

Author

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship two days after Minnesota joined 21 other states in a lawsuit to challenge it. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison discussed his strategy. 

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship two days after Minnesota joined 21 other states in a lawsuit to challenge it. This was the first in what’s likely to be a flurry of lawsuits from Democratic Attorneys General as they implement a plan that began taking shape long before Americans elected Trump. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison discussed his strategy. 

Top Minnesota attorney: Birthright citizenship suit against Trump just the beginning

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