Vermont joined nearly two dozen other states that sued on Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to eliminate birthright citizenship. Two lawsuits filed in separate federal courts argue that the birthright protections codified in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution automatically apply to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and cannot be dismissed by the stroke of a president’s pen. Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark joined 17  Democratic counterparts in other states in a suit filed in Massachusetts. “This executive order is plainly unconstitutional,” Clark said in a news release. “Babies born here in Vermont have a constitutional right to be embraced as Vermonters and Americans.” The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, overturned the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision from the decade prior, which denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves. The amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." It has long been interpreted by the federal government to mean that children born on American soil are citizens, regardless of their parents’ legal status. Courts have recognized only a few exceptions, such as the children of diplomats. Trump’s order, among a flurry issued in the early hours of his second term, defies that long-standing precedent. It argues that such children are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. and therefore don’t qualify for 14th Amendment protections. [content-1] Children born to undocumented immigrants — or even mothers in the country under legal but temporary statuses, such as foreign students or tourists — will now no longer be treated as citizens, the order states. The order will take effect in 30 days, giving the courts time to weigh its legality before federal agencies begin implementing it. Legal experts have expressed skepticism that it will pass constitutional muster. The lawsuit represents what is likely to be a long and drawn-out battle between the Trump administration and Democratic states over immigration policy and other pillars of the MAGA agenda. During Trump’s first term, the Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office participated in 62 multi-state lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of his administration’s moves, all but two of which were successful. “I hope that I’m wrong,” Clark told Seven Days last month, “but I expect I'm going to have to do a lot of work to uphold the rule of law.”…