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To: Arthur McGowan

Yeah you do. There’s the separate but related issue of whether the 14th Amendment covers children born of aliens, it if were resolved in the negative would render moot the question of whether they are natural born citizens.


176 posted on 01/29/2016 8:00:48 AM PST by Behind the Blue Wall
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To: Behind the Blue Wall
There’s the separate but related issue of whether the 14th Amendment covers children born of aliens, it if were resolved in the negative would render moot the question of whether they are natural born citizens.

There's not much of an issue (well, apart from online blogs).

The 39th Congress, which framed the citizenship clauses of the Civil Rights Act and 14th Amendment made abundantly clear that under the acts children born in the U.S. of alien parents were citizens. Examples:

Sen. Trumbull (draftsman of citizenship clause the C.R.A.):

"I understand that under the naturalization laws the children who are born here of parents who have not been naturalized are citizens. Is not the child born in this country of German parents a citizen?" Sen. Trumbull, Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. 497 (1866).

"I have already said that in my opinion birth entitles a person to citizenship, that every free-born person in this land is, by virtue of being born here, a citizen of the United States, and that the bill now under consideration is but declaratory of what the law now is." Sen. Trumbull, Cong. Globe, 39th Cong. 1st session. 600 (1866)

James Wilson, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is equally clear. He gave a long presentation to the House, which stated in part:

"It is in vain we look into the Constitution of the United States for a definition of the term "citizen." It speaks of citizens, but in no express terms defines what it means by it. We must depend upon the general law relating to subject and citizens recognized by all nations for a definition, and that must lead to a conclusion that every person born in the United States is a natural born citizen of such States, except it may be that children born on our soil to temporary sojourners or representatives of foreign Governments are native born citizens of the United States. Thus it is expressed by a writer on the Constitution of the United States: "Therefore every person born within the United States, its territories or districts, whether the parents are citizens or aliens, is a natural born citizen in the sense of the Constitution, and entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to that capacity." Rawle on the Constitution, pg. 86." Rep. Wilson. Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., lst Sess. 1115 - 1117 (1866).

In U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, the question was rather definitively settled as to children of resident aliens; such are citizens at birth, and, since the Court interpreted "born . . . in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" to have the same meaning as the common law "natural born citizen," they are NBC as well.

179 posted on 01/29/2016 11:46:48 AM PST by CpnHook
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To: Behind the Blue Wall

Since everyone agrees that the 14th Amendment was written for the sole purpose of protecting the rights of freed slaves, the 14th Amendment should be repealed.

This would undo Roe v. Wade and a host of other wretched jurisprudence purportedly based on the 14th Amendment.


181 posted on 01/29/2016 1:19:25 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
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