Of course, sometimes the US Constitution can be really hard to interpret, and basically it means what the Supreme Court decides that it means. Guns, abortion - this stuff is complicated. But I don't see what's so difficult about Section 1 of the 14th Amendment:
"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 Unites 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."
What drugs are the lawmakers of Arizona on that they think denying citizenship to so-called "anchor babies" (a derogatory term for children of Hispanic illegal immigrants) would not be an obvious violation of the Constitution?
I agree with the representative quoted as saying that the intent of the amendment was not to provide citizenship to illegal aliens. (I don't believe there even was a distinction between legal and illegal immigration in 1868 when the amendment was ratified. The purpose was to ensure that black ex-slaves would not be denied citizenship.) But I find it basically impossible to imagine that the Supreme Court will be swayed by his reasoning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Well, apparently it is also now mandatory in Arizona to carry proof of citizenship at all times. They seem to have a lot more racism/xenophobia than common sense around there lately.
Some people would like to change that in the Constitution, but IMO it is foundational to the whole notion of citizenship. Otherwise you create a permanent underclass of non-citizens whose children are also non-citizens, and on and on.
And, yeah, I meant those comments to refer to present-day America and how I think it should operate. I do realize that citizenship was/is not always based on place of birth.
Post a Comment