Just a piece of paper
Joining our little friend Georgie Bush, who thinks the US Constitution is “just a goddamned piece of paper,” are 92 Republicans in the US House. They apparently think that 140 years of Constitutional law can be thrown out by submitting an amendment to an immigration bill that would end birthright citizenship.
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to guarantee the rights of emancipated slaves: “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.” This amendment provides any child lucky enough to be born in the United States with American citizenship.
The Neanderthal Republicans want to turn the clock back and effectively roll up the sidewalks to exclude everyone from becoming an American. While they may say that this will not happen, does anyone believe them? They are such a trust worthy bunch.
Posted on The Human Stain
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to guarantee the rights of emancipated slaves: “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.” This amendment provides any child lucky enough to be born in the United States with American citizenship.
The Neanderthal Republicans want to turn the clock back and effectively roll up the sidewalks to exclude everyone from becoming an American. While they may say that this will not happen, does anyone believe them? They are such a trust worthy bunch.
Posted on The Human Stain
posted by James Roberts at
12/10/2005 06:47:00 PM
1 Comments:
GOP officials, Rep. Tom Tancredo and John C. Eastman should reread the Citizenship Clause.
The phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," is enclosed within a PAIR OF COMMAS, with the first comma placed before the coordinating conjunction "and."
An element enclosed within a PAIR OF COMMAS is "non-restrictive," meaning the phrase does not modify or qualify the element preceding; a comma-plus-coordinating-conjunction is regarded as a "single punctuation mark."
Another case of being "hanged by a pair of commas"?
Grammatically, the phrase is actually intended to read: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and [all persons] subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and [citizens] of the State wherein they reside."
The Clause thus confers a SECOND, still unrecognized, category of citizens of the United States--"All persons subject to the jurisdiction thereof."
Senator James Doolittle mentions this category during the debate (at p. 2897, 1st col., Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 1st Session, May 30, 1866) with the phrase "all persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" in quotation marks:
"But, sir, the Senator has drawn me off from the immediate question before the Senate. The immediate question is whether the language he [Senator Jacob Howard, the author] uses, 'all persons subject to the jurisdction of the United States,' includes these Indians..."
Based on the remarks by Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Lyman Trumbull and Senator Howard (the author) during the debate, this SECOND category conveys the meaning:
"All persons owing allegiance within the extent or territory over which the constitutional power of the United States extends"--or birth within the realm and within the allegiance.
At that time in 1866, this SECOND CATEGORY embraced "persons" NOT "in the United States" but within:
--the 12 ceded territories awaiting statehood
--the 11 Confederate States awaiting readmission to the Union
--the District of Columbia.
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domingoarong, at 12/12/2005 2:46 AM
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