14th amendment question. By removing the birthright part of the 14th

[alfredo]

Would you also be removing the equal protection clause from the 14 th?


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



Could anchor babies just be a way to get at the Civil Rights Act?

[Xipe Totec]

1. Yes, you would

and probably be in violation of several international treaties approved by Congress.

But this in not about law, this is about demagoguery.

[alfredo]

6. I know it doesn't stand a chance, but if they are using it to get votes,

Let's show what could really be behind their push: the equal protection clause, and all the social advances that are based on that clause. Anchor babies are the "loss leader" that gets people fired up about changing 14th amendment.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Here's my take how far the removal can go.

EVERYONE (any individual) will be born w/o citzenship and must apply which means one can always be REJECTED for citzenship. And there will be a citzenship "test" that will root out "real Americans" (drafted by Republicans, of course). I only wonder if this will be retroactive and citzenship revoked until it is reinstated.

[elleng]

3. Not necessarily. Could remove:

'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' w/o 'harming' the rest, imo.

Defining 'citizen' should occur somewhere, tho.

[Hosnon]

4. No. The first sentence could be removed, leaving the rest of the amendment intact.

I think it's absurd to deny automatic birth-right citizenship.

[Pab Sungenis]

5. You already don't have to be a citizen to get equal protection.

Re-read the clause. "...nor shall any State deprive any PERSON of...nor deny to any PERSON..." (emphasize mine).

[alfredo]

7. It's about questioning their intentions.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. I'd prefer they leave that Amendment alone entirely

And instead go ahead and say what they mean: We are afraid of brown people who live South of the US border and we want to eject not only those who are legally, but those without cards as well.

Basically this is the same old same old: Republicans don't like brown people.

[alfredo]

9. And they are willing to shred our Constitution to prevent the eventual

Shift from dominance by white Christian males to brown people. They know it is coming and it scares them to death.

[JustAnotherGen]

22. They also assume

That said people will be as hateful as they have been historically . . . I myself - as a brown person of the President Obama Persuasion (black, white, native) have no need to act hateful. There's been enough of that in this world already.

And this nonsense? It just perpetuates that kind of small minded thinking. :-( Sorry to crap all over your thread alfredo - I'm just seriously saddened/disturbed that there are people in America that actually think this is a 'good' idea.

[alfredo]

24. No you aren't crapping all over this thread. I am looking for an effective way to

Frame this issue. For as long as I can remember the right has had issues with our constitution. I want to question their motives and to see if their argument is not just with anchor babies, but with the concept of equal protection under the law.

[Bitwit1234]

25. If they made this retro active Romney is gone.

His father was born in Mexico of parents who gave up their citizenship. So If Romney's daddy-o wasn't a citizen how could Romney be. Notice Romney is not saying anything about this....

[mmonk]

10. Yes. Their whole movement hates the 14th amendment

including their legal groups.

[alfredo]

13. Title 9 and the civil rights act draw from the 14 th.

[niyad]

18. and don't forget that judge walker used the equal protection clause as part of his decision on prop

hate

[alfredo]

21. True.

[mmonk]

19. And Fair Housing, IDEA, ADA, and many more.

They can have a field day.

[WolverineDG]

11. What anti-immigrant bigots don't get is

once you allow the government to change & then set the standards for who is & who isn't a citizen, you're allowing them to go back & change them in the future.

You'd also be allowing the government to repeal the 14th Amendment with no guarantee that the other protections it contains now will be carried over into the new Amendment.

Leave the 14th Amendment alone.

dg

[havocmom]

12. Civil Rights Act and a whole lotta other stuff

[Bold Lib]

14. If we did away with the due process clause would that force reinstatement of privilege & Immunities?

We may end up better off if that were the case.

[alfredo]

16. What are the differences?

[backscatter712]

15. It'd make it meaningless.

If birthright citizenship is removed, it could be replaced with whatever arbitrary bullshit criteria that the teabaggers want, meaning that anyone could at any time be stripped of citizenship.

And we all know how the Roberts court rules - rights are only for citizens!

[alfredo]

17. Didn't bush try that with an executive order?

[malaise]

20. Listen this entire discussion is meant to prevent

Another African student from coming to the US, marrying an American citizen and giving birth to a African- American citizen who can become President.

Ignore the stupidity that the same people claim he wasn't born in America.

[alfredo]

23. Maybe if the majority had treated the minority better, there wouldn't be

So much fear over a shift in demographics.

[malaise]

28. Well since they would love to go back to slavery and

Jim Crow and they continue to practice institutional racism, they must fear a shift in demographics because what they really fear is payback.
They'd better study that first amendment carefully and think long and hard about minority rights because their day is coming.

[alfredo]

29. Karma's a bitch.

[aquart]

26. Irrelevant distraction. It ain't happening.

And we all know it ain't. Just pre-election make work to pretend they deserve their jobs.

[alfredo]

27. But it speaks volumes about their contempt for our constitution.

It is secondary to their agenda.

[Motown_Johnny]

30. I was wondering how any of us are citizens without that provision

I know my citizenship depends on it, I was born here. Without that provision how am I still a citizen?

[alfredo]

31. We have a lot of Germans in the upper midwest. We can't

get rid of them because they have the secret to great beer.