To the editor:

In response to Roger Baumann:

If you research why and when the 14th amendment was created, you would discover it was created Following the Civil War. Congress submitted to the states three amendments as part of its Reconstruction program to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to Black citizens. A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.

Birthright Citizenship is Fundamental to American Life.

The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

By a vote of 6-2, the Supreme Court agreed with Wong Kim Ark vs US that he was a U.S. citizen. Writing for the majority, Justice Horace Gray explained that although the “main purpose” of the 14th Amendment had been to establish the citizenship of Black people, including former enslaved persons, born in the United States, the amendment applies more broadly and is not restricted “by color or race.” Instead, he wrote, the amendment “affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory, in the allegiance and under the protection of the country, including all children here born of resident aliens.”

There are two clear examples of people not subject to the jurisdictions of the United States: diplomats and their children, and — at the time of the 14th Amendment — Native Americans, who were not recognized as part of the American population.

U.S. military personnel stationed overseas are subject to the criminal jurisdiction of the host country

U.S. armed forces bases abroad are considered part of the U.S. for the purpose of carrying out U.S. laws

All persons in a country — including military personnel – unless granted diplomatic or other legal immunity, are subject to that country’s laws.

Today, there is only one group that is not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. and thus does not attain birthright citizenship: children born to foreign diplomats who are protected by sovereign immunity and are therefore not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.

Info from Constitution Center and Archive.org

Ardis Truwe

Redwood Falls