14th Amendment Citizenship
by Scott Eric Rosenstiel
If you look through the copy of the United
States constitution found in the 1990 edition of
Black's Law Dictionary, you'll notice something
very interesting. The word "Citizen" is always
capitalized until you get to the fourteenth
amendment, which was adopted in 1868. After
that, it's no longer capitalized. This isn't an
isolated occurrence either. In the definition of
"Dred Scott Case," a supreme court case decided
before the fourteenth amendment, they capitalize
"Citizen," but everywhere else in the
dictionary, where it refers to the laws of
today, the word isn't capitalized. As you shall
see, this is just one small indicator of many
that the fourteenth amendment created a new
class of citizen.
This is certainly no secret to the legal
community. In fact, under the definition of
"Fourteenth Amendment" it says, "The Fourteenth
Amendment of the Constitution of the United
States... creates... a citizenship of the United
States as distinct from that of the states..."
This class of "citizen of the United States" was
new; it was unknown to the constitution prior to
1868. This wasn't the status of our forefathers.
In the first sentence of the definition of
"United States" found in Black's, it says, "This
term has several meanings." Pursuing this
further, we find that one of the definitions is
the "collective name of the states which are
united by and under the Constitution." This is
what the framers of the constitution meant by
"Citizen of the United States" - that is,
theCitizen of one state is to be considered and
treated as a Citizen of every other state in the
union.
Used in another sense, though, the term is
simply the name of the federal government. This
is what is meant by "citizen of the United
States in the fourteenth amendment":
Privileges and immunities clause of
Fourteenth Amendment protects only
those rights peculiar to being citizen
of federal government; it does not
protect those rights which relate to
state citizenship.
Jones v. Temmer, Federal Supplement,
Vol. 829, Page 1227 (1993)
From the authorities above, we can see that the
fourteenth amendment created citizenship of the
federal government. This status is a privilege
granted by the government:
Citizenship is a political status, and
may be defined and privilege limited
by Congress.
Ex Parte (NG) Fung Sing, Federal
Reporter, 2nd Series, Vol. 6, Page 670
(1925)
It goes without saying that the federal
government can regulate the privileges it
creates. By definition, "citizenship" is the
basis of a person's relationship with the
government. In the legal sense, everything else
is built upon it. Therefore, since fourteenth
amendment citizenship is a privilege, every
aspect of the citizen's life could potentially
be regulated. Worst of all, this new class of
citizen does not have the right to invoke the
protections of the Bill of Rights, as explained
in the following supreme court case:
We have cited these cases for the
purpose of showing that the privileges
and immunities of citizens of the
United States do not necessarily
include all the rights protected by
the first eight amendments to the
Federal Constitution against the
powers of the Federal government. They
were decided subsequently to the
adoption of the Fourteenth
Amendment...
Maxwell v. Dow, 176 US 598 (1900)
This isn't an idea peculiar to the turn of the
century either. Going back to the 'Jones' case,
which was decided in 1993, we find the courts of
today saying, "The privileges and immunities
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects very
few rights because it neither incorporates any
of the Bill of Rights not protects all rights of
individual citizens."
Although fourteenth amendment citizens have no
guaranteed access to the Bill of Rights, the
amendment itself does state that they have
certain "privileges and immunities." Here's what
the supreme court has decided they are:
Privileges and immunities of citizens
of the United States, on the other
hand, are only such as arise out of
the nature and essential character of
the national government, or are
specifically granted or secured to all
citizens or persons by the
Constitution of the United States.
Slaughter-House Cases, supra, p.79; Re
Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436, 448, 34 L.ed.
519, 524, 10 Sup. Ct.Rep. 930; Duncan
v. Missouri, 152 U.S. 377, 382, 38
L.ed. 485, 487, 14 Sup.Ct.Rep. 570.
Thus, among the rights and privileges
of national citizenship recognized by
this court are the right to pass
freely from state to state (Crandall
v. Nevada, 6 Wall. 35, 18 L.ed. 75);
the right to petition Congress for a
redress of grievances (United States
v. Cruikshank, supra); the right to
vote for national officers (Ex parte
Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651, 28 L.ed. 274,
4 Sup.Ct.Rep. 152; Wiley v. Sinkler,
179 U.S. 58, 45 L.ed. 84, 21 Sup.Ct.
Rep. 17); the right to be protected
against violence while in the lawful
custody of a United States marshall
(Logan v. United States, 144 U.S. 263,
36 L.ed. 429, 12 Sup.Ct. Rep. 617);
and the right to inform the United
States authorities of violation of its
laws (Re Quark, 158 U.S. 532, 39 L.ed.
1080, 15 Sup.Ct.Rep. 959).
Twining v. New Jersey, 211 US 78
(1908)
As discussed in the last article, Sovereign
Citizens created government to guarantee them
their rights. In contrast, it would seem from
the above that the federal government created
fourteenth amendment citizenship to guarantee
its power.
As a side note, this amendment has always been
controversial. Many people over the years have
questioned the amount of power it vests in the
federal government. Some have even questioned
its validity. On one occasion Judge Ellett of
the Utah supreme court remarked:
I cannot believe that any court, in
full possession of its faculties,
could honestly hold that the amendment
was properly approved and adopted.
State v. Phillips, Pacific Reporter,
2nd Series, Vol. 540, Page 941, 942
(1975)
However, the most important fact about this
amendment is that, although it created a new
class of citizen, it did not have any effect on
Sovereign Citizens. Both classes still exist:
When the Constitution was adopted the
people of the United States were the
citizens of the several States for
whom and for whose posterity the
government was established. Each of
them was a citizen of the United
States at the adoption of the
Constitution, and all free persons
thereafter born within one of the
several States became by birth
citizens of the State and of the
United States. (Mr. Calhoun in his
published work upon the Constitution
denied that there was any citizenship
of the United States in any other
sense than as being connected with the
government through the States.)
The first attempt by Congress to define
citizenship was in 1866 in the passage of the
Civil Rights Act (Revised Statutes section 1992,
8 United States Code Annotated section 1). The
act provided that:
"All persons born in the United States
and not subject to any foreign power
are declared to be citizens of the
United States."
And this in turn was followed in 1868 by the
adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, United
States Code Annotated Amendment 14, declaring:
"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."
Perkins v. Elg, Federal Reporter, 2nd
Series, Vol. 99, Page 410 (1938),
affirmed by supreme court at 307 US
325 (1939)
Both classes of citizen still exist. It's your
right to be a Sovereign Citizen, while it's a
privilege to be a fourteenth amendment citizen,
and most importantly, it's up to you to
determine which one you are, and which one you
want to be.
To learn more, please call my BBS, The
Sovereignty Workshop at (818) 762-1288. The
board is FREE, and we give FULL access by the
very FIRST call.
We have many files that will help educate you
further about your Constitutionally-protected
RIGHTS, and what you can do NOW to preserve
them.
This file is a composite of our 1st 5 "INTRO"
files series, so when you call you need not
download those files. Hope to see you there!
Here's written information we offer to help you
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ARTICLE #2
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Updated : Wednesday, April 16, 1997 4:46:30 PM
Created: Friday Mar. 01, 1996 04:53:58 PM
© copyright 1995, 1996Jah Red Productions
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