John Boehner (R-Tanning Booth on the Right) wants hearings to repeal the 14th Amendment if it will curb illegal immigration. Let’s take a look at what Johnny Boy wants yanked from the Constitution.
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.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Wanna know why they passed this amendment? Because you had a large population of people who only recently had been considered property and, for census purposes, “two-thirds of a person.” So while Mr. Boehner says it’s about illegal immigration, what he really wants is for the states, who are the most incompetent of political entities, not to have to enforce that pesky Bill of Rights.
Mr. Boehner, you are not just a racist; you come dangerously close to being a traitor to your country. Do the nation a favor and move to Costa Rica with Rush.
I “think” he wants to address just that which deals with automatic citizenship by birth. As regards that, it makes sense to me; sooner or later you have to shut the door or those most incompetent of political entities will be overrun with a population they can’t support.
But because it is Boehner, I could be wrong and he actually does want the entire Amendment repealed. It wouldn’t surprise me.
In fact, Boehner doesn’t want the entire amendment repealed. This is just another internet horror-fiction rumor intended to create incendiary posts like this one.
And the “large population who only recently had been considered property” were in fact counted as three-fifths, not two-thirds.
Also, states are not “the most incompetent of political entities”, having been created by the Constitution itself (before the Bill of Rights, which was an afterthought). In fact, states were considered the most important political entities, given most of the power by the Constitution to prevent an overreaching central government.
But with posts like this one, who cares about the facts, right?
Gee, Mike, which state seems to be an upstanding paragon of organizational genius to you? California? Ohio? Texas? Maybe New York, but I get the impression New York rather tolerates the rest of the nation instead of embracing it. The other 49 are pretty pathetic company. If you study your history, you will notice that it came about because the states could NOT be trusted to preserve the Union, and, in fact, Rhode Island had a nasty habit of skipping out on their share of the Revolutionary War debt.
True, states’ rights were considered in the Constitution’s creation, but it was state disregard for the original Confederation that prompted a strong central government to begin with.
But with the right’s hysterical cries over just about anything that threatens it, who cares about facts?
If you want to modify citizenship parameters, then say, “We need to amend the Constitution to modify how one becomes a citizen,” not it’s worth considering repealing the one amendment that forces the states to enforce that same Bill of Rights they should have been enforcing in the first place.