Posts

Showing posts with the label birthright citizenship

Yes to birthright citizenship

That's the topic of my Scripps Howard column with Ben Boychuk. My take: What does the 14th Amendment really mean with regard to "birthright citizenship?" Tough to say. Even the men who wrote and passed the amendment in 1868 weren't in full agreement on that point. The amendment says that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens." But the legislative debate over that language was fierce - some senators argued it surely didn't mean that children of American Indians or gypsies or Chinese would be granted the same citizenship as white people. Other senators - notably John Conness of California - believed otherwise. "The children of all parentage whatever, born in California, should be regarded and treated as citizens of the United States, entitled to equal civil rights with other citizens," Conness said. The debate continues today. But birthright citizenship - a long