Birthright lawsuit vs. legislator dismissed

A lawsuit that falsely alleged Arizona state Rep.-elect Raquel Terán isn’t a U.S. citizen was swiftly dismissed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Terán, a Democrat from west Phoenix, was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in last week’s midterm elections. A lawsuit, filed by an anti-immigrant activist, sought to prevent her from taking office.

Judge Connie Contes dismissed the lawsuit after Terán’s attorney provided the court with a certified copy of her birth certificate. In 2012, the same person filed a similar case against Terán; it was dismissed that year.

Terán, who wiped back tears during the hour-long hearing, said while it’s clear the lawsuit was baseless, the allegation speaks to an “anti-immigrant climate” that exists in Arizona and the country and seeks to exclude Latino people from government.

“We need to speak up,” Terán said outside the courthouse. “We need to make sure that we are exposing harassment and intimidation, and that we fight this type of narrative.”

Alice Novoa, a perennial Republican candidate for office and far-right conspiracy theorist, filed the latest lawsuit against Terán on Nov. 5.

Novoa testified Wednesday that she believes Terán isn’t eligible to hold elected office and isn’t a citizen because she was born to Mexican parents living in the United States, repeatedly calling Terán an “anchor baby.”

She argued that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants birthright citizenship to everyone born on American soil, is misinterpreted and shouldn’t include the children of noncitizens.

“This is a case that has to go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Novoa told the judge.

The concept of birthright citizenship was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1898, when the justices affirmed the citizenship of a man born on U.S. soil to parents who were Chinese nationals.

“This is well-settled law,” Terán’s attorney, Andy Gaona, responded, adding that the case was motivated by “racial animus.”

Contes dismissed the case on the merits and encouraged Gaona to file paperwork seeking a court order forcing Novoa to pay attorney’s fees.

Gaona told reporters that Terán’s legal costs are likely several thousand dollars.

Novoa has previously told the court that she has no income and doesn’t work. In both cases against Terán, the court waived or deferred filing fees because Novoa claimed she couldn’t afford to pay.

Novoa was the sole case.

Terán said she looks forward to fighting an “anti-immigrant” narrative as a state lawmaker. plaintiff in the