232 posted on
06/11/2009 4:17:22 PM PDT by
MamaTexan
(I am NOT an administrative, corporate, collective, legal, political or public entity or ~person~)
It's simple. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco of Chinese immigrants who were not naturalized and indeed ineligible to become naturalized (under the Chinese Exclusion Act). When Wong returned to the US from a visit to China, the government attempted to exclude him on the ground that, although he was born in the US, his parents were subjects of the Chinese emperor and not subject to US jurisdiction. But the Court held that the only persons not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" were diplomats, members of hostile occupation forces, and certain Indian tribes. Since Wong's parents did not fall into any of those classifications, under the 14th Amendment, he was a citizen by reason of his place of birth.
Obviously, that overturns what Secretary Bayard was attempting to maintain with regard to Greisser.