The argument for birth-right citizenship is, of course, more suitable to feudalism than it is to republicanism. Under the feudal concept of citizenship, anyone born under the protection of the sovereign owed perpetual allegiance or fealty to the sovereign. It is hardly credible that the framers of the American Constitution would have contemplated a basis for citizenship that had its origins in the feudal regime. Indeed, in basing citizenship on the consent of the governed, the obligations of citizenship were placed on an entirely new and republican basis. The Reconstruction Congress recognized this point when it passed the Expatriation Act of 1868. This act a companion piece to the fourteenth amendment was an explicit rejection of birth-right citizenship as the ground for American citizenship. It simply declared that "the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thus the English common law doctrine of birth-right citizenship was decisively rejected as incompatible with the principles of consent embodied in the Declaration of Independence. After all, the Declaration of Independence announced to the world that Americans no longer considered themselves to be British citizens. If Americans held to the notion of birth-right citizenship, they would have been incapable of declaring their independence from Britain! judiciary.house.gov/legacy/6042.htm
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 23:22:47 +0000
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