The Constitution Today: 14th Amendment
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-01-10/constitution-today-14th-amendment
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Written in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment remains a battleground in the debate over citizenship and rights. Our series on the Constitution Today examines the amendment and how it's been challenged through history.
Guests
Bruce Fein
former associate deputy attorney general, Republican counsel during the Iran-contra hearings, and founding partner with the Lichfield Group
Michael Meyerson
professor of law at the University of Baltimore and author of "Liberty's Blueprint" and "Political Numeracy."
Sherrilyn Ifill
professor, University of Maryland School of Law, co-founder of the Reentry of Ex-Offenders Clinic and author of "On the Courthouse Lawn."
Comments
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PART TWO
But note a contradiction in your Comment. First you assert that we “are all subject to the law”, and then you end by castigating reliance on the Constitution - the supreme law of the land! Yes, the Constitution sanctioned slavery. But the part we are talking about (the 14th Amendment) was passed as part of the drive to end that evil, and to provide equal rights to “any person” in this country.
P.S. - You’ve got the story about McCain screwed up too, but enough is enough.
Rood Andersson on January 10, 2011 @ 9:59 pm wrote: “perhaps you should volunteer to assist in the procedure until you, too, scream, throw up, and go into shock at the awful effect genital mutilation has upon the innocent.”
Been there, done that. As a male Jew I’ve both been circumcised and participated in a number of Bris (“brisi”, bris’s?). Of course I don’t remember the melodramatic trauma you invoke, and I certainly don’t recall any child whose bris I attended suffering so either.
But thanks for avoiding the fact that female circumcision is an entirely different procedure!
P.S. - Glad to see someone recognizes the ultimate origin of Etaoin Shrdlu, though I actually got it from a science fiction short story.
It saddens me that your guests, all lawyers exploited and ignored the most important arguments put forth before Congress to describe the 14th Amendment. These can be read in the Congressional Globe.
The intention of the 14th was to protect not only Black Americans but Native Americans from state laws to infringe on their Bill of Rights.
Reading the text of the comments made by the co-sponsors of the 14th Amendment they clearly stated not only were children of Ambassadors and Consuls prohibited from becoming citizens but also illegal immigrants. This is also clear because the Chinese despite birth place were not considered citizens and were subject to state laws barring them from being citizens.
The Chinese case, used to justify birth on soil, was a special case because the subject was already a citizen but upon returning to the US from a burial in China was denied as a non-citizen.
Native Americans were a problem for the 14th because Congress could not mandate citizenship on them. The solution was to allow Native Americans to decide for themselves if they wanted to be US citizens.
AMM. IVX [July 9, 1868]
By Act of Congress & 3/4ths States
Text
Section 1. 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
[snip 2-5]
Ms. Rehm,
The 14th Amendment created two Constitutions.
The first Constitution prior to the Civil War created a Republican form of Government,
The second Constitution revised after the Civil War created a Constitution which ushered in a Democratic form of Government based on majority rule of the Legislative Branch (Congress and the Senate)
Prior to the Civil War the most powerful Constitutional Amendment was the 10th Amendment. Then after the Civil War the 10th Amendment was completely diluted.
The 14th Amendment did not completely emancipate Black People from slavery; it transformed physical slavery into public slavery by making the former slaves and their descendants, as well as all citizens born in the United States or a US territory, wards of the United States. The 14th Amendment created a new corporate citizenship that did not exist in the Republic.
How does "subject to the jurisdiction thereof " apply to the person who crossed our
border illegally and makes her way to an American hospital to have a baby ?
Your guest experts were anxious to invoke the moral arguments about the treatment
of illegal immigrants but they said nothing about the morality of the person who
crosses the border illegally to have a child at the expense of American taxpayers .
Surely the senators (?) who originally wrote the fourteenth amendment had things to say about people other than native Americans , former slaves , and children born to diplomats.
How did they intend this amendment to apply to immigrants - legal or not ?
Your experts didn't seem to know .
Why do most other countries in the world say that children born in their countries
are citizens of the countries of their parents ? Are they not as smart as we are ?