Rob Natelson on TV: Explaining the Constitutional Issues in "Birthright Citizenship"
How the Constitutional Case Against Citizenship for Children of Illegal Entrants SHOULD Be Argued
This is a corrected version of an article originally appearing at the American Thinker website. It is the third of a three-part series. In two prior postings (here and here), I listed flaws in the constitutional arguments of opponents of birthright citizenship for children of aliens living here illegally. For children to be American citizens […]
Birthright Citizenship Opponents Should Not Rely on 14th Amendment Congressional Debates
An earlier version of this article first appeared in The American Thinker. Opponents of birthright citizenship often cite fragments of the congressional debate over the Fourteen Amendment’s Citizenship Clause to argue that the amendment’s drafters intended to exclude the children of visiting foreigners. However, reliance on these fragments is a mistake. Opponents of birthright citizenship […]
An Objective Guide to Birthright Citizenship
An earlier version of this article appeared in The American Thinker. This is a guide to the constitutional issue of whether a child is a citizen if born in the United States to alien parents here illegally. If you are simply looking for arguments to bolster your political views, look elsewhere. If you are genuinely […]
The Most Radical Decision Ever?
This article first appeared in The American Thinker. A complete commentary on the same sex marriage case would take far more than a single short article. Accordingly, I offer only some discrete thoughts: * A big expansion of federal power. Many libertarians believe the courts should use the Fourteenth Amendment to protect rights unenumerated in […]
New Article: Government's Obligation To Be Impartial
The Constitution was adopted amid a belief that government is a public trust.* Does the Constitution require federal and state governments to adhere to formal duties of public trust—that is, to fiduciary duties? In some places, at least, it clearly does: The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes on the states what is […]
New Article: Government’s Obligation To Be Impartial
The Constitution was adopted amid a belief that government is a public trust.* Does the Constitution require federal and state governments to adhere to formal duties of public trust—that is, to fiduciary duties? In some places, at least, it clearly does: The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes on the states what is […]
Must the Federal Government Honor an "Equal Protection" Rule?
Does the Constitution require the federal government to afford “equal protection of the laws?” At first glance at the Constitution’s text, it would appear not. There is no general Equal Protection Clause in the Constitution applying to the federal government—although there are a lot of clauses requiring equal treatment in specific situations. The Equal Protection […]
Justices Make It Tougher for State Universities to Discriminate, But Not Tough Enough
(This is the third of several short commentaries on recent Supreme Court decisions.) The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Fisher v. University of Texas has made it tougher for state universities to run their ethnic spoils systems. But not tough enough. First, the background: The Fourteenth Amendment requires states to extend “equal protection of the […]
Time Mag’s Constitutional Baby Babble
Several readers sent me for comment a lengthy cover article in Time Magazine by managing editor Richard Stengel. Stengel’s piece is one result of new public interest in our Constitution and in “first principles”—interest that has forced political liberals (Stengel has been a paid Democratic activist) to think about the document’s real meaning. Previously, of […]
