Democratic attorneys general are vowing to uphold the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship following President Donald Trump’s attempt to do away with it via executive order.

After being sworn into office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order overhauling birthright citizenship in the United States despite it being a constitutional right under the 14th Amendment. Several attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, have vowed to uphold the right and find legal routes to fight the order. 

“No executive order can supersede the U.S. Constitution and over 150 years of settled law. While President Trump may want to take this nation back to a time before all American citizens were treated equally under the law — we will not allow him to do so,” Mayes posted on social media, adding in a second post that “countless American patriots have fought and died to protect our constitutional rights, and I will do everything in my power to defend the Constitution.”

“Birthright citizenship is a right expressly guaranteed under the Constitution. It’s disappointing that the President chose to disregard the Constitution and attempt to invalidate this right as one of his first acts in office,” Bonta said, noting his office was “ready to fight” for Californians. 

Platkin said his office was reviewing Trump’s order.

Birthright citizenship has been de-facto law in the U.S. since the country’s inception. It was ratified by the 14th Amendment in the wake of the Civil War in a slew of Reconstruction amendments to ensure that former slaves, who were not considered citizens in some Southern states, would be considered as such.

“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,” the 14th Amendment states. It also prohibits the deprivation of “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to rebut the order, citing the explicit language of the Constitution. 

“Birthright citizenship is guaranteed in our Constitution and is absolutely central to what America stands for,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in the case. “Denying citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil is illegal, profoundly cruel, and contrary to our values as a country.”

Birthright citizenship has been upheld in various court battles, such as United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that the 14th Amendment guarantees that a child born, even to two noncitizens, on U.S. soil is an American citizen.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1898 that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China,” automatically became a U.S. citizen at birth. 

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The high court at the time additionally found the citizenship clause could not be interfered with via acts of Congress.

The only exception to birthright citizenship, according to the Constitution, is the children of foreign diplomats, who are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.