According to Scalia, originalism means the public meaning of the words at the time of their writing. So what you write down matters, not just the thoughts that are going about in your head.
If you go by the public meaning of these words at the time of the writing, would they support birthright citizenship? Obviously, yes.
Given that there were 4 votes for the contrary proposition, maybe there is a good case to be made, but I haven't yet read it.
Because quite clearly, 'under the jurisdiction of' includes illegals. If an illegal commits a crime, where will he be prosecuted? Illegals are not like diplomats or red Indians.
The authors of the constitution did not declare birthright citizenship to be illegal because the very concept is anathema to any coherent definition of nation or citizen.
To be clear: you think we need to choose between "everyone can pop out a kid on our soil and that kid is automatically a citizen of this country" and "you can't enforce your own laws on your own land if the perpetrator is foreign born". You think the correct interpretation of an arguably vague or ambiguous clause should result in us facing this decision.
To be clear: you think we need to choose between "everyone can pop out a kid on our soil and that kid is automatically a citizen of this country" and "you can't enforce your own laws on your own land if the perpetrator is foreign born".
No, I think birthright citizenship is really stupid, and not just for anchor babies.
But as far as I understand it, that's what "under the jurisdiction of" means.
The guy who wrote the amendment clearly stipulated "this won't apply to illegals" but did not include it in the text. So either the amendment was written by an idiot or they viewed it as so self evident they didn't need to mention it. Kind of like how the founders would never in a million years extend freedom of religion to non Christians.
According to Scalia, originalism means the public meaning of the words at the time of their writing. So what you write down matters, not just the thoughts that are going about in your head.
If you go by the public meaning of these words at the time of the writing, would they support birthright citizenship? Obviously, yes.
Given that there were 4 votes for the contrary proposition, maybe there is a good case to be made, but I haven't yet read it.
Why would you think that "under the jurisdiction of" included illegals in the 19th century?
Because quite clearly, 'under the jurisdiction of' includes illegals. If an illegal commits a crime, where will he be prosecuted? Illegals are not like diplomats or red Indians.
The authors of the constitution did not declare birthright citizenship to be illegal because the very concept is anathema to any coherent definition of nation or citizen.
To be clear: you think we need to choose between "everyone can pop out a kid on our soil and that kid is automatically a citizen of this country" and "you can't enforce your own laws on your own land if the perpetrator is foreign born". You think the correct interpretation of an arguably vague or ambiguous clause should result in us facing this decision.
No, I think birthright citizenship is really stupid, and not just for anchor babies.
But as far as I understand it, that's what "under the jurisdiction of" means.
"Clearly" according to you, a 20th century immigrant to Europe. I'm going to need to see more documentation.
Clearly, and with argument.
BTW, Europe doesn't have birthright citizenship, so we're clearly doing something right.
The guy who wrote the amendment clearly stipulated "this won't apply to illegals" but did not include it in the text. So either the amendment was written by an idiot or they viewed it as so self evident they didn't need to mention it. Kind of like how the founders would never in a million years extend freedom of religion to non Christians.