Replies

Except it did NOT mean everyone born in the US were citizens, because American Indians were given citizenship many years AFTER the 14th Amendment was passed.

The important part is the “under the jurisdiction thereof” and THAT is the crux of the 14th Amendment that no one wants to really try to understand.

Many today assume the second half of the citizenship clause (”subject to the jurisdiction thereof”) merely refers to the day-to-day laws to which we are all subject. But the original understanding referred to political allegiance. Being subject to U.S. jurisdiction meant, as then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lyman Trumbull stated, “not owing allegiance to anybody else [but] subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.” The author of the provision, Sen. Jacob Merritt Howard of Michigan, pointed out that the jurisdiction language “will not, of course, include foreigners.” ~ Matthew Spalding, Asst. Dean Hillsdale College

As a matter of fact, people claim that US v. Wong Kim Ark proves that children born to illegal alien children are given automatic birthright citizenship, but Wong’s parents were here LEGALLY! They were permanent residents.

Birthright citizenship is predicated on the feudal system where all persons born on the King’s land were automatic subjects of that King...it was more of an OWNERSHIP designation; kind of like you have a “right” to be subjugated by the King!

However, by forcing America to accept and ultimately PAY FOR every person that happens to slip over a line in the middle of the night and drop out a kid is completely antithetical to America’s concept of equal rights and consent of the governed. We have a legal and moral right to decide who we allow to become American citizens - PERIOD!

Except it did NOT mean everyone born in the US were citizens, because American Indians were given citizenship many years AFTER the 14th Amendment was passed.

But at the time of the 14th American Indians were not considered ‘under the jurisdiction of the U.S.’ They were, considered sovereign (and in some respects, they still kind of, are). That’s why agreements with Indians are called ‘treaties’. Tribal or treaty Indians did not receive automatic U.S. citizenship until the 20’s I think.

None of this is to say that birthright citizenship is right or proper or even mandated by the intent of the writers of the 14th. But it is how that passage has been interpreted. Congress’s passage of a law ending it would pretty much force a SCOTUS decision on the issue, but I think that would be a tough bill to get passed.