printANN COULTER is ever the ace on matters of law: “Democrats act as if the right to run across the border when you’re eight and a half months pregnant, give birth in a U.S. hospital and then immediately start collecting welfare was exactly what our forebears had in mind, a sacred constitutional right, as old as the 14th Amendment itself.
The louder liberals talk about some ancient constitutional right, the surer you should be that it was invented in the last few decades.
In fact, this alleged right derives only from a footnote slyly slipped into a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Brennan in 1982. You might say it sneaked in when no one was looking, and now we have to let it stay.
The 14th Amendment was added after the Civil War to overrule the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, which had held that black slaves were not citizens of the United States. …
The drafters of the 14th Amendment had no intention of conferring citizenship on the children of aliens who happened to be born in the U.S. (For my younger readers, back in those days, people cleaned their own houses and raised their own kids.) …
… And then, out of the blue in 1982, Justice Brennan slipped a footnote into his 5-4 opinion in Plyler v. Doe, asserting that “no plausible distinction with respect to 14th Amendment ‘jurisdiction’ can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful.” (Other than the part about one being lawful and the other not.)”
A must read by ANN COULTER. …
UPDATE (Aug. 6): In reply to “Patriot”:
Here on BAB we are a little more circumspect about chief cheerleader for Bush during his reign of terror, who piped up mostly about, safe, small issues, and is a reliable Republican water carrier. We recommend you read through the Coulter Archive on BAB, and the same archive in the Articles Archive for a realistic reappraisal.
Shame on me but I wasn’t aware of the origins of the 14th amendment or the 1982 action. Is it too late to do anything about it? Probably so as I’m sure some set in stone precedent is now in effect and can only be rescinded by some sort of amendment to the Constitution. I certainly don’t want to start throwing amendments around because with today’s political, social climate we would probably end up with rhesus monkeys getting the vote. I guess we are stuck with the “anchor babies”. A revolting development.
[Double shame, b/c this writer has written about the 14th. Search the articles archive.]
Nominated by Eisenhower to pander to New England liberals in an election year. All hail the GOP.
Boy, is my face red. You must have posted those articles during the time I was taking my sabbatical at the top of the Matterhorn where I was contemplating my navel and pondering the meaning of life.
God bless Ann Coulter. As far as my experience goes, she has never been wrong, only less right in a few circumstances. She has more substantive balls than most in government (all Democrats and almost all Republicans). And that includes the phony audaciousness of king Obama.
Her simple and unassailable explanation of the 14th amendment should not require an intellectual defense of any kind, but as we just witnessed in the California prop 8 case, the written constitution is no longer of particular relevance in this once great country.
Good column by Ann – I wonder if there is a response. In any case, even if the baby is a citizen, the parents should be deported and the baby put up for adoption if the parents don’t want to take the baby back (in which case, the baby is no longer “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”). So either there is a new adopted baby for American parents or the baby heads back to YaYaLand.
As for the welfare state – end it, don’t mend it!
As for idiot judges, I am more convinced in the efficacy of impeachment – one or two examples will get the judiciary into line! For example, the one (of two) openly gay Federal judge gets to overturn ALL state constitutions based on “modern understandings” and “international law” – I don’t care much either way on gay marriage but idiotic judges will ruin whatever remnant of limited government and local autonomy still exists.
By the way, the gay judge in Perry v. Schwarzenegger was a Reagan/Bush appointee – so all those “if only Republicans ruled the planet” idiots should just zip it!
Myron, maybe you can produce even one statement where anyone, idiot or otherwise, indicates that Republicans are perfect and should rule the planet in any sense.
While we’re waiting for you to produce those supporting facts, I can say that if Republicans had been in sole possession of political power for the last 50 or 100 years, the country would be in immeasurably better (if not perfect) shape today. To deny that makes one an idiot by any definition.