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To: bushpilot1
He is a natural born citizen according to the 14th amendment, which was passed to clear this up.

By your logic, and as was the practice in the Southern States, slaves born in America were not citizens because their parents were not citizens.

255 posted on 05/15/2010 6:08:16 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: Doe Eyes
He is a natural born citizen according to the 14th amendment, which was passed to clear this up.

No it did not.

258 posted on 05/15/2010 6:19:52 PM PDT by Red Steel
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To: Doe Eyes
By your logic, and as was the practice in the Southern States, slaves born in America were not citizens because their parents were not citizens.

That is exactly how the law worked until 1866, and modern opprobrium of the practice does not change the law before that time nor the reality of it. A slave was not a citizen because slaves were in bondage. There were a variety of forms of bondage, from what came to be known as chattel slavery to indentured servitude. These were entirely legal, were present for over a century before our nation's founding and were legal for close to ninety years afterwards.

So, you're badly mistaken if you believe the 14th Amendment to have addressed anything other than the denial of citizenship to former slaves who were no longer slaves as a result of the Civil War. They were what they were, and that doesn't get erased because the society changed and the laws changed after the fact. The States made every determination of citizenship themselves, and State citizenship determined citizenship in the United States as a whole, not the other way around.

This was the case from the ratification of the Constitution until 1866 and the ratification of that Amendment. The only Federal aspect of citizenship at all up to that point was a uniform set of naturalization laws under the power enumerated under the Constitution to the Legislative branch.

Speaking of after the fact, the 14th Amendment made citizens of noncitizens. There is no affirmative act of law that can create a natural born citizen after the fact. It is a status that is or is not present at birth. So, the 14th Amendment created citizens via de facto naturalization, therefore there is no precedent regarding natural born citizenship and the requirement of such status under Article 2, Section 1.

Try again.

278 posted on 05/15/2010 8:47:34 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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