"..for anyone else who doesn't understand the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship" - a powerful Lawrence O'Donnell video segment
Birthright Citizenship:
"The common law by which all person born within the King's allegiance became subjects whatever were the situation of their parents, became the law of the colonies and so continued, while they were connected to the crown of Great Britain. It was thus the law of each and all of the states at the Declaration of Independence"
Lawrence O'Donnell explores the history of the first case of birthrights citizenship. Long before the 14th amendment, the U.S. Constitution itself, and prior to the Revolutionary war.
The case of Julia Lynch 1844
Full transcript of the Lawrence O'Donnell segment | August 19, 2015:
"There are few things more deeply grounded in American law than the simple fact that babies born in this country are citizens of this country. It was formerly written into the Constitution in the 14th amendment in 1868. The first sentence of the 14th amendment says:
"No court has ever found a hint of ambiguity in that sentence. But it was already the law of the land long before the 14th amendment and it always was, for everyone, except slaves."
"The 14th amendment was written after the Civil War specifically to clarify that former slaves were citizens."
"For everyone else there was never any real legal doubt about this. The first known legal challenge to this enshrined principle came in an inheritance case in New York. A fourteen year old Irish girl named Julia Lynch was the beneficiary of a substantial inheritance from her uncle who had done very well in the mineral water business in Saratoga Springs, New York which still produces the most beautifully bottled mineral water in the country.
"For the better part of a hundred years Saratoga Springs mineral water was so dominant in the mineral water business that mineral water in general was known as 'Saratoga water'.
"Julia Lynch was legally challenged as being ineligible to receive her inheritance because she was not an American citizen. The first sentence of the judges decision in that case describes Julia Lynch's brief residency in the United States which ended before her first birthday:
"
Judge Lewis Sandford, who wrote the opinion in the Julia Lynch case, went on to describe the history of American law on this subject which predates the Constitution and predates the Revolutionary War. Remember, American law existed before there was a Constitution.
Thirteen years passed between the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the Constitution. And before that..before the Revolutionary War the colonies were subject to both British law and American law. American law that was written in each of the individual colonies and applying to each of those individual colonies.
"And as Judge Sandford noted in the case:
"And so, birthright citizenship has been an unshakable principle of American law since colonial times. The influence of English common law on American law was as strong after the revolution and the Constitution as it was before.
"Judge Sandford noted:
"And of course, the common law included birthright citizenship. So it was without any legal strain at all that Judge Sandford found in favor of Julia Lynch writing:
"And that law of the United States applied to an Irish baby, born in New York City in 1819 who left the country within months of her birth and never returned.
"Such is the inalienable right to citizenship for babies born in the United States of America. Donald Trump's wishful thinking can not rewrite that law; cannot rewrite the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution. He can not rewrite Judge Sanford's opinion about Julia Lynch's citizenship written twenty four years before the fourteenth amendment."
[clip of Trump & Bill O'Reilly bloviating: threatening to challenge the 14th amendment]
"Donald Trump will not find a legal scholar to mount a court challenge to birthright citizenship. The Julia Lynch case can never be reversed. In court, Donald Trump wouldn't have a chance against Julia Lynch; a fourteen year old Irish girl who lived in the United States for only a few months and who came by her American citizenship the same way Donald Trump did. By being born in New York City."
(end of transcript)
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So not only does the issue of birthright citizenship "trump" the 14th amendment by a quarter of a century, (the republicans seem to have confused their vitriol and condemnation of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution - which is much more in line with what #Black Lives Matter advocates are fighting for today), but these republicans are deceitful when they waggle their self righteous fingers at Trump for promulgating this racial slur - "anchor babies". They've been at it long before Trump threw his hair into the presidential race.
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Over the orange doodle bug is an excellent source of many legal arguments and a whole timeline of court cases going back years in a timeline that tells of the history of birthright citizenship. plus at the heart of the dispute: Jus soli vs jus sanguinus arguments
A Re-Examination Of Birthright Citizenship
by Gary Endelman
An endnote excerpt:
The Constitution works best when it operates to ratify what society has already accepted, not when a politically potent faction is able to impose its view upon the rest of us.
While the hopes and dreams of those who wrote the Citizenship Clause have long since vanished and faded away, what they did and gave to us remains as it first was. It is ours to visit anew.
Birthright citizenship is more than a legal doctrine, more even than a constitutional concept.
It is, at bottom, a manifestation of the American spirit, an expression of the American promise that all those who make our cause their own can become and are part of us.
This is what birthright citizenship has meant before and what it can mean again to us and to others.
As Lucius Cary Falkland, the Second Viscount, told the House of Commons in November 1641, “when it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”
- Now is such a time.
- time to turn in - hope this is as interesting as I found it to be - Thanks for stopping by