I thought it to be appropriate to quote the 14th amendment wording, so that it's myth can be exposed:
"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."
14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Okay.. If the argument of those who believe it confers birthright citizenship were valid,
"subject to the jurisdiction thereof" would not be necessary. The clause would read:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But
"subject to jurisdiction thereof" is a very important phrase and it means something. Even the simple word "and" is important. So now you have a list of criteria to meet. You must be born or naturalized, and also... subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
What ‘Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof’ Really Means
In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment (1998) the court said “jurisdiction is a word of many, too many, meanings.” Therefore, it is important to discover the operational meaning behind “subject to the jurisdiction” as employed under the Fourteenth Amendment rather then assuming its meaning from other usages of the word jurisdiction alone. Both Sen. Trumbull and Sen. Howard provides the answer, with Trumbull declaring:
The provision is, that ‘all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.’ That means ‘subject to the complete jurisdiction thereof.’ What do we mean by ‘complete jurisdiction thereof?’
Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.
In other words, it isn’t local jurisdiction the Fourteenth Amendment recognizes but only the lack of owing allegiance to some other nation because the United States only recognizes those who are ‘true and faithful’ alone to the nation. As will be explained shortly, only acts under the laws of naturalization can remove an alien’s allegiance to some other country under United States law.
Additionally, Trumbull argued Indians could not be subject to the jurisdiction for the reason the United States deals with them through treaties. This is also exactly how the United States deals with aliens; it enters into treaties with outer countries to define legal rights of their citizens while within the limits of the United States and vice versa. Example: A treaty with China prohibited the United States from naturalizing Chinese citizens.
Sen. Trumbull further added, “It cannot be said of any Indian who owes allegiance, partial allegiance if you please, to some other Government that he is ‘subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.’” Sen. Jacob Howard agreed:
concur entirely with the honorable Senator from Illinois [Trumbull], in holding that the word “jurisdiction,” as here employed, ought to be construed so as to imply a full and complete jurisdiction on the part of the United States, coextensive in all respects with the constitutional power of the United States, whether exercised by Congress, by the executive, or by the judicial department; that is to say, the same jurisdiction in extent and quality as applies to every citizen of the United States now.
This remark by Sen. Howard places this earlier comment of his on who is “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” into proper context: “This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.”
What Sen. Howard is saying here is citizenship by birth is established by the sovereign jurisdiction the United States already has over the parents of the child, and that required that they owe allegiance exclusively to the United States – just as is required to become a naturalized citizen. It does not require a leap of faith to understand what persons, other than citizens themselves, under the Fourteenth Amendment are citizens of the United States by birth: Those aliens who have come with the intent to become U.S. citizens, who had first complied with the laws of naturalization in declaring their intent and renounce all prior allegiances.
Sen. Trumbull further restates the the goal of the language: “It is only those persons who come completely within our jurisdiction, who are subject to our laws, that we think of making citizens…” Note that Trumbull does not say temporarily within our jurisdiction, but completely within our jurisdiction.
Fail. Again.
Thus the Fourteenth Amendment begins, “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.” This is the common-law doctrine of jus soli, and the meaning of the language is straightforward.
To the extent an alternative reading exists, restrictionists claim the “subject to the jurisdiction” clause creates ambiguity about the Amendment’s true meaning. Alien parents supposedly owe allegiance to a different sovereign, and therefore they are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and therefore their U.S.-born kids are not entitled to citizenship.
But “jurisdiction” defines the territory where the force of law applies and to whom—and this principle is well settled to include almost everyone within U.S. borders, regardless of their home country or the circumstances of their birth. It does not include foreign diplomats, who enjoy sovereign immunity, and foreign military invaders, who are supposed to obey the laws of war. By the circular restrictionist logic, illegal immigrants could not be prosecuted for committing crimes because they are not U.S. citizens.
Members of the 39th Congress forcefully debated birthright citizenship, with opponents arguing it would benefit the ethnic targets of the day—Indian tribes, Chinese laborers building the railroads, “gypsies.” They did not prevail. In 1898 the Supreme Court confirmed the Amendment’s original meaning in Wong Kim Ark, which recognized the citizenship of a San Francisco-born man of Chinese descent, and it reaffirmed this understanding as recently as 1982 in Plyler v. Doe.
Born in the U.S.A.
You can claim "FAIL" all you like and cite as many left wing sources that are wrong on this as you please... it won't ever make you right.
The question of "birthright citizenship" was answered in 1884.
Elk v. Wilkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Elk, a
Winnebago Indian born on an
Indian reservation and later resided among whites in the non-reservation U.S. territory in
Omaha,
Nebraska, where he renounced his former tribal allegiance and claimed
citizenship by virtue of the
Citizenship Clause.
[1] The case came about after Elk tried to register to vote on April 5, 1880, and was denied by Charles Wilkins, the named defendant, who was registrar of voters of the Fifth
Ward of the City of Omaha.
The question then was, whether an
Indian, born a member of one of the Indian tribes within the
United States, is, merely by reason of his or her birth within the United States, and of his afterward voluntarily separating him or herself from the tribe and taking up residence among
white citizens, a citizen of the United States, within the meaning of the first section of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the
Constitution.
Under the constitution of the United States,
Congress had and exercised the power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes, and the members thereof, whether within or without the boundaries of one of the states of the Union. The "Indian tribes, being within the territorial limits of the United States, were not, strictly speaking, foreign states"; but "they were alien nations, distinct political communities", with whom the United States dealt with through treaties and acts of Congress.
[2] The members of those tribes owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes, and were not part of the people of the United States.
[3]
Thus, born a member of an Indian tribe, even on American soil, Elk could not meet the allegiance test of the jurisdictional phrase because he “owed immediate allegiance to” his tribe, a vassal or quasi-nation, and not to the United States.
The Court held Elk was not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States at birth. “The evident meaning of these last words is, not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance.”[4]
The exclusion of Native Americans from citizenship was eventually eliminated by the
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. At the time, two-thirds of Native Americans had already achieved citizenship.
[5]
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So there you have a Native ******* American... born on US soil to his Native American parents... the court found he did not meet the "allegiance" requirement. How can Wong as well as illegal aliens, be "birthright citizens" yet a Native American can't?
Now, I understand that in the lives of liberals there are dozens and dozens of double standards but the Constitution of the United States doesn't work like that. It establishes in Article 1, that Congress has plenary power when it comes to determining who is a naturalized citizen... this could not be clearer... it is not the least bit ambiguous.
Article 1 Section 8 Clause 4--
The Congress shall have power to establish a
uniform Rule of Naturalization.
It does not give the SCOTUS power to rule it into existence or liberal operatives the power to prospectively make it part of the Constitution. SORRY! IT'S NOT THERE!
Even the 14th Amendment leaves plenary power to Congress:
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
It does not say SCOTUS has power to rule whatever it pleases on this or liberals can interpret the 14th to mean whatever the hell they want. It says CONGRESS has power to enforce the provisions.
CONGRESS... Got it?