[inquest]

What it looks like you're saying in your posts is that the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment extends only as far as Congress wants it to extend - that by tweaking the definition of "jurisdiction", they can enlarge or contract the citizenhip pool at pleasure. Do I have that wrong?

[Polybius]

What it looks like you're saying in your posts is that the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment extends only as far as Congress wants it to extend - that by tweaking the definition of "jurisdiction", they can enlarge or contract the citizenhip pool at pleasure. Do I have that wrong?

What I meant to say is that the original drafters of the XIV Amendment intended U.S. citizenship to be limited to those individuals whose parents were part of American society and not to the offspring of every pregnant tourist or illegal alien whose water happens to break on U.S. soil.

Then again, I am rather old fashioned, and believe in the concept of Constitutional "original intent".

Since, for the life of me, I can not see how the original intent of the XIV Amendment had anything to do with abortion, my archaic notions of "original intent" obviously don't carry much weight in this day and age.

[WOSG]

You have it almost but not quite right. Congress' powers to specify and to elucidate the exact boundaries of this "under the jurisdiction" clause are in the 14th amendment itself:

"Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."