A reader: “Doesn’t the 14th amendment state, pretty unequivocally, that all
persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States? It
wouldn’t seem to be a matter of ‘interpretation.’ What’s your issue here?”
[Derb] Here is the relevant sentence, the first, of the 14th Amendment:
“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.”
That does not strike me as “unequivocal.” The phrase “subject to the
jurisdiction of” begs for interpretation. The current interpretation seems
to be: “born or naturalized in the United States,” which makes the whole
thing a pleonasm. The Founders seem to me to have been guys who were pretty
careful with words, and not much prone to pleonasm.
My issue is: To award citizenship to any person born on your territory,
without any regard whatsoever to the status, background, or intentions of
the parent(s), is SHEER GIBBERING LUNACY.
That’s my issue. OK?