"...that country has a right to concentrate your affections..."
America 250: July 9th
On July 9th in 1868, the 14th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified by the states.
“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.” — US Constitution Amendment 14, Section 1
The 14th has been the subject of much debate in recent years. The most high profile discussion centered around my state, Colorado, and our Marxist Executives’ attempts to prevent President Trump from running for office in 2024.
The Colorado Supreme Court removed him from the ballot before the US Supreme Court overruled their overreach. From their opinion:
“A group of Colorado voters contends that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits former President Donald J. Trump, who seeks the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party in this year’s election, from becoming President again. The Colorado Supreme Court agreed with that contention. It ordered the Colorado secretary of state to exclude the former President from the Republican primary ballot in the State and to disregard any write-in votes that Colorado voters might cast for him. Former President Trump challenges that decision on several grounds. Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse.”
And the rest is history (and we’re still making it).
More recently, the Supreme Court reinforced the limitations on lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions, specifically as it pertains to the “Birth Right Citizenship” in Section 1 — a perversion of the original intent granting full citizenship rights to the descendants of former slaves. The current understanding of section 3 (by Marxists) is that anyone that touches the magic soil is included under the text.
The court has not yet dealt with the question on its merits, but they did allow President Trump to keep deporting criminal invaders before the court hears the case, expected during the October 2025 term.
It’s not a tough question. The framers of the amendment were crystal clear on the matter. From Harp Week:
“Debate on the proposed Fourteenth Amendment opened in the Senate on May 23, 1866. Because Senator Fessenden was absent due to illness, Senator Jacob Howard represented the Joint Committee on Reconstruction by opening the debate and steering the Fourteenth Amendment through the Senate. On May 29, Howard moved to amend Section One by adding a citizenship clause to read, ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside.’”
The transcript of that debate clearly shows that the framers were NOT intended to grant citizenship to any person who touched the magic soil in the future:
The Reconstruction Amendments fundamentally transformed our Republic, an idea explored in George P. Fletcher’s Our Secret Constitution, but even they didn’t go so far as to make citizenship so meaningless as unipartisans do today.
It will be good for the country for SCOTUS to put the matter to bed, once and for all, during their next session.
"Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations." — George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
“The Reconstruction Amendments fundamentally transformed our Republic”
yet, the war between the states was only about the evils of slavery, not the federal/anti-federal philosophies, or political power?
automatic voting rights to freed slaves dramatically changed the political power dynamic within southern states particularly, and federally in general. was really no different than the current efforts encouraging and allowing illegals to vote. one was done “legislatively” without the states whom “never left” the union, but whom could not “return” to the union unless they ratified those “reconstruction” (redistribution) amendments.
political warfare. always just below and slightly ahead of actual conflict.
people forget how bad every “civil” war goes. always. mao understood, power flows from the barrels of guns. “government” always comes down to “force”.
Thank you for investing your time to put these out!