Leftist organizations respond with an opening salvo of lawsuits to Trump's first actions

The frenetic pace of announcements and actions by the brand-new Trump Administration was met in recent hours with a string of lawsuits filed by activist guilds and NGOs. The organizations had been preparing for months, under the slogan of being "ready to fight" from day one.

One of the measures that reaped the most legal challenges is the end of birthright citizenship. "Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values," said the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), an activist organization that filed a class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs claim that Trump's order violates the Fourteenth Amendment: "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." Since its passage more than a century ago, they assert, both mandates and court decisions affirmed birthright citizenship.

Anticipating these objections, the Trump Administration argued in communicating the order that that was a misinterpretation of the fundamental text. The amendment never covered "universally to everyone" those born on U.S. soil, but only those who also met the requirement of being "subject" to U.S. "jurisdiction."

Those born to parents who are in the country illegally or with a temporary permit, they claim, are not subject to that jurisdiction.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, composed of some 30 Democratic lawmakers, joined in the rebukes. "Un-American," "unconstitutional," "political stunt," are some of the words it chose to describe the measure, which it assured would create a class of second-class citizens. Although the caucus promised to fight it, it did not detail how.

The DOGE, a favored target

The brand new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), commanded alone by Elon Musk, will also have to spend several sessions on the bench.

A coalition of organizations, which claim to represent veterans, public health professionals and teachers, asserted in a court filing that the agency does not comply with federal transparency laws. As an outside commission and not a public agency, they assert, it will be able to dictate federal policies without the "transparency, oversight, or opportunity for public participation" required by law of the latter.

Among the activist institutions that filed that lawsuit was the highly combative Democracy Forward, which on the same day of the inauguration launched a rapid-response legal team against the then-still-president-elect's impending measures.

It took little time for it to spring into action. On the same January 20, the newly born Executive Order Legal Response Center announced a series of investigations into the transition. Through public requests for federal and state information, they demanded documentation on transition teams and "far-right state governments preparing to aid Trump’s hardline and extreme Day 1 agenda."

The legal complaints against DOGE are motley, from violating federal law on agencies, as alleged in one lawsuit by the National Security Counselors, to undermining ecology, as contended in another by the Center for Biological Diversity. "Musk is using DOGE to achieve the far right’s longstanding goal of dismantling protections for our air, water and most imperiled wildlife," the center's executive director said.

The public employees' union AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees), which in the election endorsed first Biden and then Harris, accused the department of lacking "a fair balance of viewpoints" and lacking public reporting on its work. Along with activist NGOs Public Citizen and State Democracy Defenders Fund he filed his own lawsuit.

Against the reorganization of the State

Another union ready to act against the Trump Administration was the National Treasury Employee Union. According to a Reuters report, its legal team asked a federal judge in Washington to block the executive order on "Schedule F."

With the ink still fresh, the order signed by the president reclassifies thousands of federal employees. From the White House they explained that the objective is to increase accountability, facilitating the dismissal of those who resist implementing provisions mandated from the Oval Office.

For the guild's president, Doreen Greenwald, the goal is quite different: "[To] administer political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and serve their country," according to words reported by The Washington Post.