Arizona continues to become the nation's Laboratory of Teamocracy with the latest batch of newly introduced bills in the state house targeting the foundation of American citizenship for the last 142 years, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Proposed Arizona law targets "birthright" citizenship
(Reuters) - Arizona Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday seeking to challenge the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the state whose parents are illegal immigrants or other non-citizens.
Republicans introduced bills in the Arizona legislature that aim to provoke a legal review of the 14th amendment to the Constitution, which anchors citizenship rights for the children of immigrants.
The Arizona G.O.P. wants to take some Americans' citizenship away, leaving them as people without a country.
This move came in the middle one of Sheriff Joe's notorious county wide Hispanic round ups.
The move by state legislators came the same day the sheriff for Phoenix and surrounding areas sent a force of 200 deputies and citizen volunteers on an immigration sweep, an action the controversial lawman has undertaken periodically since 2008.
This comes from the Arizona Republic:
Arizona lawmakers file 4 birthright bills
Arizona lawmakers on Thursday filed four bills for consideration that they hope will change how the U.S. recognizes children of illegal immigrants.
House Bill 2561 and Senate Bill 1309 defines an Arizona citizen as someone "lawfully domiciled" in Arizona who is born in the U.S. and is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." It defines individuals who are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. as children who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national or a legal permanent U.S. resident.
House Bill 2562 and Senate Bill 1308 would require Arizona to create separate birth certificates for children who are deemed to be Arizona citizens under House Bill 2561 and those who are not. It also seeks permission from Congress to form compacts with other states doing the same thing.
A lot of the Arizona Republicans crazy ideas seem to stem from a fringe movement named the Second American Constitution that considers the 13th 14th 15th Amendments to the Constitution (the Reconstruction Amendments) to be illegitimate, and the Federal Goverment has been operating illegally ever since Reconstruction.
Our Secret Constitution: How Lincoln Redefined American Democracy
He offers an important reappraisal of the constitutional significance of Lincoln and the Civil War. The Civil War, he contends, "called forth a new constitutional order." (p. 2) The principles of this new order, embodied in the Reconstruction Amendments, "are so radically different from our original Constitution, drafted in 1787, that they deserve to be recognized as a second American Constitution." (p. 2) According to Professor Fletcher, what he calls the first republic was based on the social compact, individual freedom, and republican elitism. In contrast, the second republic was based on "organic nationhood, equality of all persons, and popular democracy." (p. 2) This second constitution was repressed but never destroyed. "Even after the judges turned their backs on the new order, the second constitution, sanctified by the six hundred thousand who died in its gestation, remained a firm but minimally visible commitment of American political culture." (p. 7) Repressed into the legal subconscious (p. 1), the "Civil War constitution became our alternative charter, our Secret Constitution, waiting in the wings for a more propitious time to step out on the stage of open judicial debate." (p. 7) After the War, "in addition to embedding the states in the rule of law, the new constitutional order embarked on an affirmative program to ensure equality." (p. 25) The "heart of the new consensus is that the federal government, victorious in warfare, must continue its aggressive intervention in the lives of its citizens." (p. 25)
The Second American Constitution movement sees the Civil War as the point where America went wrong. They are determined to to correct this wrong and the Arizona Republican Party seems ready to try and undo the changes America went through during and following the Civil War.
14th Amendment
- 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.