[DiogenesLamp]

You always find that the numerous Supreme Court opinions are trivial and insignificant.

I like the ones that agree with me just fine.

What is significant is your bleatings, directly contrary to centuries of court holdings.

Argumentum ad antiquitatem. Argumentum ad verecundiam.

The words are the law. Intent is not.

Which is exactly what is wrong with the law. It wrings what meaning it wants out of the words, even to the extent it is contrary to the intent.

[woodpusher]

Act of May 24, 1934; 48 Stat. 797, "To amend; the law relative to citizenship and naturalization, and for other purposes, starts out amending Section 1993 of the citizenship law.

"Sec. 1993. Any child hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States...."

And Congress showed off its intelligence and logic. They reasoned, if you can call it that, that "out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States" would cover all who were not born "within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States." What they were looking for was "out of the territory or jurisdiction of the United States. They wiffed at the required logic.

Their intent was to cover all not covered by 14A. They meant well. The words of the statute did not do that. John McCain and others were born outside the territory, but within the jurisdiction of the United States. They were not covered by 14A or any Federal law until the law was changed.

The words of the old Act were the law, not the intent of the people who wrote the words. The screwup was brought to the attention of Congress and they wrote a new Act.

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.

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.

If intentions made law, the second Act would not have been necessary.