LAT Editorial: Tampering with citizenship

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Editorial

Tampering with citizenship
Efforts to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants fly in the face of the 14th Amendment and a century of legal precedent.

January 13, 2011

Legislators from five states have unveiled model legislation with complicated provisions but a simple and pernicious premise: that children born in this country aren't citizens if their parents are illegal immigrants.

That assertion, however, is no match for more than 100 years of Supreme Court precedent holding that anyone born in the United States is an American citizen. If the states enact laws disregarding that principle, the court should resoundingly reaffirm its interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
<snip>

The natural reading of that language is that it covers any person born in the United States, who by definition is subject to American law. But the legislators opposed to so-called birthright citizenship offer a different interpretation of "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." They argue that a child is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States unless he or she has "at least one parent who owes no allegiance to any foreign sovereignty, or <is> a child without citizenship or nationality in any foreign country."
<snip>

In the event that the legislators' initiatives are enacted, that precedent surely would lead the Supreme Court to strike them down. Still, these proposals muddy the legal waters in service of a mean-spirited campaign against the children of illegal immigrants. Whether it's hysteria about "anchor babies" or opposition to the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for children brought to this country at a young age, anti-immigrant fervor is unworthy of this society. So is this ill-considered assault on a long-established legal principle.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-citizen-20110113,0,5847728.story

[Drale]

1. The federal government needs to do something big

to remind the states of there place and that federal law trumps state law, and especially Constitutional Law trumps anything that the states do.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Subject to the jurisdiction means laws can be enforced on you

Otherwise, you could not arrest or detain these individuals for violating the law. Wouldn't that be sweet? You could get away with anything because you are "not subject to the jurisdiction".

What a bunch of morons these right wingers are.

Foreign diplomats in the United States are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Everyone else is.

[pinboy3niner]

4. An AZ Republic columnist had a great comment about that:

"I would guess that every illegal immigrant tossed into one of Sheriff Joe's jails would concede that he was subject to the jurisdiction thereof, lest he wouldn't be wearing pink underwear."

--Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LaurieRoberts/112851

[madrchsod]

3. i would`t trust this supreme court to reaffirm

[Downwinder]

5. If it applies only to Citizens. Then non-Citizens can not be illegal.