Letters

Letters to the editor, Dec. 3

TBO.com
Published: December 3, 2011

Law is clear regarding citizenship

At the time of the country's founding, African slaves were not citizens, but slaveholding states were allowed to count three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of Congressional representation.

Under Article 1, section 2, paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution, "...Indians not taxed" were specifically excluded from being counted for representation purposes.

In the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which Pat Miketinac cites in a Nov. 30 letter to the editor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that persons of African ancestry could not be citizens of the United States.

In Elk v. Wilkins, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Indian tribes were "...alien nations, distinct political communities..." so that an American Indian, although born in American territory, was not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. so was not a citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment.

The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution erased the Dred Scott ruling. The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act made Elk v. Wilkins obsolete.

In Happersett v. Minor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women were citizens.

The case is significant because it said that there were two types of citizens. "...These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners." Natives are the same thing as natural born citizens per Minor.

In the Minor case, the Justices did

not rule whether the children of noncitizens born in the U.S. became citizens at birth. Minor's parents were citizens so the Justices didn't have to deal with the issue.

In the 1898 case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule as to whether Wong, a person born in the United States to parents who were Chinese nationals, was a citizen at birth. The Justices ruled that, under the 14th Amendment, he was.

It's interesting that, in Minor, the Justices cited English common law for guidance as to how the Founders considered citizenship. Under common law, a child of aliens born in British territory was a "natural born British subject."

To sum up: As the law now stands, anyone born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen at birth per the 14th Amendment. "Citizen at birth," "native" and "natural born citizen" all mean the same thing.

Dallas Dunlap

Brooksville

Memories from the past

The poem below was carried in the Daily News, published by the News Syndicate Co. in Manhattan, N. Y., on Nov. 4, 1949. It was put in the Congressional record by Clarence J. Brown (R-Ohio) who described the author as a prominent Democrat from Georgia

I think this pretty much covers what is going on today in this country. All of the people worried about who is and who isn't paying their fair share.

When those who don't pay income taxes whine and cry about those who pay 85 percent of the income taxes in this country. They say they should be paying their fair share.

This, of course, includes President Barack Obama. It also includes our Vice President Joe Biden, Harry Reid, plus 51 or 52 members of our U.S. Senate who are stout supporters of the President and his spending policies.

There are two so called Independents and a couple Rhino's from Maine in this group also.

With the exception of President Obama, they have been in power since the election of November, 2006. They have passed the bills to increase spending for all of the years since 2006. Barack Obama was elected to the Senate in 2006 and he voted for every one of the spending bills that came before him. This makes him a part in all of the excessive spending since the election of 2006.

The only thing that has stopped the mad rush to break this country was the House of Representatives being taken over in the election of 2010 by the Republicans. They have stopped the continuous drive to collapse our economy.

Father, must I go to work?

No, my lucky son.

We're living now on Easy Street

On dough from Washington.

We've left it up to Uncle Sam,

So don't get exercised.

Nobody has to give a damn —

We've all been subsidized.

But if Sam treats us all so well

And feeds us milk and honey,

Please, daddy, tell me what the hell

He's going to use for money.

Don't worry, bub, there's not a hitch

In this here noble plan —

He simply soaks the filthy rich

and helps the common man.

But, father, won't there come a time

When they run out of cash

And we have left them not a dime

When things will go to smash?

My faith in you is shrinking, son,

You nosy little brat;

You do too much thinking, son,

To be a Democrat

G. Lesmeister

Weeki Wachee