In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I explain the incorporation doctrine and the original intent of the 14th Amendment. More than five decades after the ratification the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court suddenly pulled an entirely new doctrine from it – virtually out of thin air. The court held that 14th Amendment applies…
Today, most people believe that children of illegal aliens who are born in the United States are automatically conferred citizenship by virtue of the 14th Amendment. American politicians regularly pontificate on this topic, basing their positions on constitutional and humanitarian grounds. The issue is considered settled by the federal courts, which have announced continually that…
The short version is this: The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment conveys U.S. citizenship on all persons "born ... in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Obviously we are talking here about persons "born ... in the United States." Thus the children of illegal aliens are not U.S. citizens only if they are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States.
I had an interesting exchange by email with a reader I’ll identify (at his request) just as TJ, an independent researcher, about the original meaning of “natural born citizen” and my views expressed in this post. We’ve covered a lot of ground so I’m just going to pick out a part of it here, regarding the…
Like many other Americans, some of our number are following the “debt ceiling debate” as closely as they can. One of them is doing so in between working even longer hours than he used to – like many other small business owners in the current economy. And despite long days, he has taken the time, [...]
Considering that most of the wheeling and dealing involved in government goes on behind closed doors, more likely than not most of what we Americans hear and see playing out in the media is maneuvering. These P.R. battles seem to provide politicians the ability to “throw some red meat” to their respective bases of support. [...]