A Stitch in Haste

Yet another example of the increasing treatment of the Constitution as a mere suggestion:

It’s been a cornerstone of U.S. law since shortly after the Civil War: Children born in the United States become citizens, even if their parents are here illegally.

Now some conservatives are taking aim at that birthright.
…
[A] growing group of House Republicans wants to change the policy. They hope to add a provision to the immigration bill that the House of Representatives will consider next week that would deny citizenship to those children.

To review:

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.

This is somehow unclear?

But who cares? Introduce, and perhaps even pass, a patently unconstitutional (not to mention spiteful) bill — for no other reason than to grandstand and pander to your redneck Red State base.

Remind me again why the actions of democratically elected politicians are somehow more legitimate than the counter-actions of unelected “activist” judges?

More:

A national poll last month by the non-partisan Rasmussen Reports found that 49 percent favored denying citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, with 41 percent opposing such a proposal.

As if that mattered one damn bit. As gay American citizens might be tempted to say to children-of-illegals American citizens: Welcome to our world, where individual rights and basic human dignities are thought by some to be subject to popular vote. Sucks, doesn’t it?

More thoughts at California Yankee, Tom Rants.

POST SCRIPT: For those wondering about the “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” wording of the Fourteenth Amendment, it refers to the well-established (i.e., at the time of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment) exemptions for children of diplomats, foreign prisoners on American soil, and the Indian territories. There is no basis in law or common sense to apply it to children of illegal immigrants. Consider: If an illegal immigrant mother is “not subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, then how can she be “illegal”? Logic can be such a nuisance sometimes. For more details, see U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898).