Posted on 04/29/2003 6:32:00 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
This is the first interpretation of the 14th Amendment on record.
The following text is from the majority opinion (about 3/4 of the way down the page):
Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1872) (USSC+)Enjoy!
Opinions
MILLER, J., Opinion of the Court
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
The first observation we have to make on this clause is that it puts at rest both the questions which we stated to have been the subject of differences of opinion. It declares that persons may be citizens of the United States without regard to their citizenship of a particular State, and it overturns the Dred Scott decision by making all persons born within the United States and subject to its jurisdiction citizens of the United States. That its main purpose was to establish the citizenship of the negro can admit of no doubt. The phrase, "subject to its jurisdiction" was intended to exclude from its operation children of ministers, consuls, and citizens or subjects of foreign States born within the United States.
He was also a bastard (literally) and a supporter of monarchy. Because of his background he did everything possible to ingratiate himself with the rich and powerful, and the "royal". The "Whiskey Rebellion" was largely his fault.
Not a nice man.
It is in Congress' right through legislation to stop the practice of awarding automatic citizenship to children of illegals, but for the sake of political correctness and votes cowardly politicians will never do such a thing.
Ok, I did not check the birth status of Washington, Jefferson, etc. But the fact remains, for the first 100 years or so of this country, all you had to do is to be not a black or yellow, get in a boat and show up and presto, you were a citizen. Finally, if children of immigrants are not US citizens, that would make it pretty hard for anyone to be a citizen as even the indians are descendent from immigrants and they were here even before the main body of european immigrants came.
PC certainly has something to do with this, but so does hypocrisy as I suspect most of congress is not more than 3 generations from being children of immigrants themselves.
One final question, would you be so eager to stop immigration, if the immigrants were from england or ireland, instead of from mexico ? In the secrecy of your own thoughts, I think you know the answer and should at least admit it to yourself.
How do you feel about the "pregnancy holidays" many asian women take in the US in order to have an anchor baby? Do you not think this is an abuse of the 14th amendment?
Neither the Congress nor the Executive have the power of law to confer citizenship outside the powers enumerated in the Constitution. If the 14th Amendment specifically states that children of resident and illegal aliens are not US citizens, and there is a Supreme Court decision immediately after its ratification that articulates its intent, then the Executive branch is acting without authority when it issues credentials of citizenship to those legal classes not specifically included in the language of the 14th Amendment.
Further, even though Bridges v. Wixon supposedly overturned the interpretation in the Slaughterhouse Cases with regard to legal residents, the latter is clearly NOT based in Constitutional law, given that the earlier court had direct knowledge of the legislative intent of the language of the 14th Amendment.
Finally, I would like to add that there is a VERY fundamental difference between awarding citizenship to the children of legally resident aliens versus illegals. The latter is an act hostile to the sovereignty of the United States and clearly NOT acting in a manner that is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" because it is a violation of that jurisdiction for those people to even be here. It is so far from the intent of the language of the 14th Amendment that for the Executive branch to confer citizenship to those children is an act hostile to the Constitution that empowers it. The States can and should bring suit for compensation under this premise, and IMO any citizen could bring suit to demand that such citizenship be declared null and void having been granted under the illegal exercise of authority, else the action of the Congress and the Executive branch is diluting that citizenship to the point of meaninglessness.
Oh man.....So Washington and Jefferson were boat people? Illegal aliens? Some are so quick to use the race card, that they become blinded in the process....
One minor point; the Chinese came here voluntarily, blacks did not.
But the fact remains, for the first 100 years or so of this country, all you had to do is to be not a black or yellow, get in a boat and show up and presto, you were a citizen.
No, it's not a fact. People were turned back at the dock for disease, criminality, or other cause. You know no more of that history than you do about the place of birth of the founding fathers. Yours is a self-renforcing fantasy.
Finally, if children of immigrants are not US citizens, that would make it pretty hard for anyone to be a citizen as even the indians are descendent from immigrants and they were here even before the main body of european immigrants came.
The children of immigrants can be NATURALIZED as can be their parents, a process that makes them citizens under the jurisdiction of the United States. Get a grip.
Congress must address this issue in more modern terms legislatively and let the Supreme Court sort it out. If they don't do that and soon, we might as well hand over the country to Mexico or whoever now because they're literally taking over the country through the bedroom.
Yep, as did many Irish.
Staytrue might also be surprised to learn that the support systems in place for today's immigrant, the advance SSI payments, taxpayer subsidized housing & health care, and other of today's cash transfers and social services, weren't always available. All those 19th century European immigrants, once they passed through screening & delousing, were on their own.
How many know I wonder that thousands of Irish and English women and men were forcibly brought over here as slaves and servants in the 17th and 18th century before the practice was passed off to blacks.
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