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To: woodpusher

While I can see the point and agree with the Tribe/Scalia view that we must adjudicate according to the actual texts, I vehemently disagree that those texts can be at all separated from their original meanings.

-fJRoberts-


55 posted on 01/13/2024 3:32:40 PM PST by A strike (Words can have gender, humans cannot.)
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To: A strike
While I can see the point and agree with the Tribe/Scalia view that we must adjudicate according to the actual texts, I vehemently disagree that those texts can be at all separated from their original meanings.

You have here changed your word usage from original intent. It is not clear if that is meant as a substantive change or not.

With Act of May 24, 1934; 48 Stat. 797, Congress had a brain fart and enacted a law conferring citizenship on those born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States...." Quite apparently, their intent was to cover all those not covered by 14A.

By Act of August 4, 1937, 50 Stat. 558, "Relating to the citizenship of certain classes of persons born in the Canal Zone or the Republic of Panama," Congress performed a cleanup of its brainfart.

The meaning of "out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States is very clear. The words were enacted, not the intent of the logic-challenged Congressmen. It said what it said, not what they meant to say, presumably: out of the limits or jurisdiction of the United States.

The Hay-Bunai treaty of 1903 empowered the United States to exercise jurisdiction within the Canal Zone "as if" it were the sovereign. The United States was not the sovereign. The Zone was outside the territory but within the jurisdiction of the United States; leaving birth citizenship neither covered by 14A nor the applicable statute.

The intent and the meaning may wildly differ. We do not rely on intent when the meaning of the words is clear, even if the words frustrate the intent. The meaning of the words does not change because Congress realizes it screwed up. They have to correct their screwup.

There was a major problem with a prior law, and the fix resulted in this:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this Act, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States.

SEC. 2. Any person born in the Republic of Panama on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this Act, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States employed by the Government of the United States or by the Panama Railroad Company, is declared to be a citizen of the United States.

Approved, August 4, 1937.

Does retroactive conferral of citizenship make one a natural born citizen?

74 posted on 01/13/2024 11:18:09 PM PST by woodpusher
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