Coulter claims 14th Amendment doesn't guarantee citizenship as a birthright

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Coulter claims 14th Amendment doesn't guarantee citizenship as a birthright. A little later, Ken Starr corrects her.
By David Neiwert Thursday Aug 19, 2010 12:00pm



http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/coulter-claims-14th-amendment-doesnt

It seems that back in 1993, Sen. Harry Reid attacked birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, a position he later renounced and now stands thoroughly opposed to.

But the change in position gave Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly a chance not just to whack Reid last night on Fox, but for Coulter -- that self-described "constitutional attorney" -- to claim that the 14th Amendment doesn't really create birthright citizenship:

COULTER: And by the way, it is being lied about every place, but this is what the 14th Amendment required. I mean, Americans -- what Harry Reid was saying was utter common sense. Americans must be sitting back thinking, "What were they thinking back in 1860? Were Americans really worried? What is it? We haven't guaranteed citizenship."

O'REILLY: No, it was a totally different things. It was African-Americans being liberated from slavery.

COULTER: Right.

O'REILLY: It was Native Americans being tossed off their land.

COULTER: It was not Native Americans. Native Americans were excluded from the 14th Amendment. It was all about Reconstruction. It was about free slaves, this multi-culti rainbow coalition is a brand-new invention.

It wasn't like Americans were upset that the deadbeats couldn't slip into the country and have babies and start collecting welfare. We didn't have welfare then. It was amazing they even thought about it.

It was all part of Reconstruction to get an amendment added to the Constitution.

O'REILLY: OK.

COULTER: It was a big step. This whole baby anchor thing comes from a footnote that was not related to the opinion, in an opinion by Justice Brennan in 1982.

O'REILLY: But it would be very hard. It would be very hard and, I think, impossible.

COULTER: It's not in the Constitution.

O'REILLY: I think it's impossible now to get that anchor baby thing to be illegal, because you would have to get -- they would tie it to the 14th. Then it would have to go to the Supreme Court. Is it part of the amendment or not?

COULTER: Look, whether this is done by -- legislatively or by passing an amendment, I don't care about. I do care about being lied to about what the 14th Amendment says.

O'REILLY: OK, but let's be...

COULTER: That is a lie.

But then, a little over an hour later, former Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr -- the conservative attorney whose work pursuing Bill Clinton in the 1990s gave Ann Coulter her original raison d'etre as a media figure -- came on Greta Van Susteren's show and explained exactly why Coulter is full of crap:

STARR: Well, Greta, I think it would take a constitutional amendment to change that. You know, this is an ancient part of law, that we then made absolutely clear in the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after our Civil War. And the 14th Amendment guarantees every person certain rights to due process, to the protection of life, liberty and property, to the equal protection of the laws. And that is such an important set of protections for all of us as Americans.

But it also begins -- that is, the 14th Amendment, this post-Civil War amendment begins with a specific definition that a person born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States is a citizen of the United States. That's pretty clear to me.

So I think it would take a constitutional amendment to change it. But it's not as if the ratifiers and the architects of the 14th Amendment just made it up. They were really restoring a very venerable tradition in English law and frankly United States law -- until the infamous tradition of the Supreme Court in Dred Scott that held African Americans, those who were in a condition of servitude, who were slaves, were not citizens of the United States. That was profoundly wrong, and it took a constitutional amendment to overrule that decision of the United States Supreme Court.

[rfranklin]

1. But Ann Coulter is a constitutional scholar!!!!

I heard it on Fox!

[Xipe Totec]

5. It's a matter of defining terms

if by constitutional we mean blithering, and by scholar we mean idiot, then by definition Ann Coulter is a constitutional scholar.

[Subdivisions]

2. Section 1:

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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

[WinkyDink]

9. Well, we've done away with that "any person...due process" bit.

[lpbk2713]

3. ROFL ... add Constitutional Scholar to her list ...

... of non-competencies. :rofl:

[JuniperLea]

4. Where ya been, Annie?

Still stupid I see... still dull as a burned out light bulb. The sad thing is, I just know a group of my RW cousins are going to pick this up and run with it. Someone pissed in my gene pool... ugh.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. I'm so glad I don't have cable.

[JBoy]

7. I consider her more of a "morning constitutional" scholar. n/t

[dhill926]

10. that's some funny shit.......

[leveymg]

8. Coulter is dead wrong. This issue was decided in an 1898 Supreme Court decision

In US v Wong Kim Ark, a 6-2 decision, the Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment, a child born in the United States is a US Citizen, regardless of the nationality of parents. The sole exceptions are children of foreign diplomats, and those who are members of foreign forces in hostile occupation of United States territory, along with members of sovereign Native American tribes. Native Americans who were not already U.S. citizens were granted citizenship in 1924 by an Act of Congress.

[Orsino]

11. Therefore it does.

That was easy.

[jmowreader]

12. I've figured out this "constitutional attorney" thing

My dad calls the dump he takes at 7am every day his "morning constitutional."

If you were to admit the contents of the bowl after he was done to the bar, you'd have a new Ann Coulter every 24 hours.