We have recently heard much about the Fourteenth Amendment with regard to “birthright citizenship.”
The default, dumb US policy for decades has been: A nine-month-pregnant woman can stagger illegally across the border as her water breaks. And her immediately-born baby is somehow magically imbued with US citizenship.
Advocates for this idiocy have cited the Fourteenth Amendment as somehow justifying their idiocy. It does not.
Here’s the pertinent language to which they refer: “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.”
They are, of course, ignoring the language between the commas: “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
An illegal alien mother is not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US. So her newborn baby isn’t either. So her newborn baby isn’t a citizen.
Actually, anti-Constitutionalists have repeated Constitution-al comma problems. Ask Penn and Teller (NSFW) about the comma in the Second Amendment.
The 14th Amendment is colloquially referred to as the “Equal Protection Clause.” Because it was passed as a part of the US sorting out how to assimilate ex-slaves as equal members of society.
There are all sorts of quotes from many people during the amendment’s debate that CLEARLY demonstrate the amendment’s citizenship bestowment was meant for freed slaves. And ONLY freed slaves.
Of course there is much additional amendment language. Beyond just the cherry-picked, selectively read excerpt the anti-Constitutionalists cite in their bizarre birthright citizenship efforts.
This language actually further limits and restricts what the federal government can do to US in the writing of its laws. This is where the “Equal Protection” really kicks in: “(N)or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Proper application of the 14th Amendment? Means a whole lot of laws are unconstitutional.
Progressive tax law? Or any tax law other than a true flat tax? Is unconstitutional. To pass one law with multiple tax rates? Or tax law that has crony tax breaks to which only some citizens have access? Is denial of many, MANY millions of Americans’ “equal protection of the laws.”
Nigh EVERYTHING The Feds do is predicated upon punishing enemies and rewarding friends. Laws for thee – but not for me. Or vice versa. NONE of this is constitutional. Per the 14th.
Think of the MASSIVE disempowerment of the federal government the correct application of the 14th would provide.
Think of the MASSIVE equalization of opportunities the end of anti-14th cronyism would deliver.
No more bogus head starts or handouts for the politically connected. Which allows them built-in advantages over their unconnected competitors.
The Big Cronies’ government advantages mean greater success. Which means they can better afford even more cronyism. Which means even greater success. Which means…. Lather, rinse, repeat.…
Big Gov gives The Big Cronies benefits. Which delivers The Big Cronies greater success. Which allows The Big Cronies to pay for even more cronyism. Which further grows Big Gov. Which is then better able to give The Big Cronies benefits. Which…. Lather, rinse, repeat….
Big Gov benefits. The Big Cronies benefit. The only losers? All the rest of US.
It’s All Lawfare: Everyone but the Cronies Get Cheated, Mistreated by Big Government
Cronyism isn’t picking winners and losers. It’s picking losers at the expense of winners.
The losers end up looking like winners because they are being propped up and propelled forward by the cronyism. It’s government force-feeding US bad ideas. Which deprives US of better ideas. Because they are overrun by the lesser, cronyism-fueled bad ideas.
See: Fake energy. Solar and wind are TERRIBLE. But they look “viable” because of the hundreds of billions of dollars of Big Gov cronyism shoving it down our throats. And that idiotic cronyism crowds out real energy like oil and coal. Which makes the entire energy sector worse for US all.
See also: The bank sector. Which is as rife with cronyism as any sector in the US.
You know what happened to your disappeared neighborhood bank? That had been in your community for decades? Big Gov cronyism killed it.
The Big Banks dominate. They received tens of trillions of dollars in government money after they helped destroy the global economy in 2008. Not letting that serious crisis go to waste? Big Gov let The Big Banks write the Dodd-Frank law that further institutionalized their cronyism.
Thousands of neighborhood banks have been murdered as a result. Which the Big Banks then buy on the cheap. Which further solidifies their Bigness. Which….
And if your neighborhood bank has somehow continued to survive Dodd-Frank? It still has to deal with the cronied-up credit unions.
Credit unions are banks – that are classified by the government as non-profits. Which allows them all sorts of advantages your for-profit neighborhood bank doesn’t get.
Let’s start with…credit unions do not pay income taxes. I would say that’s a bit of a crony advantage they have over your neighborhood bank.
Speaking of tax cronyism? Federal credit unions are also exempt from Unrelated Business Income Taxes (UBIT). Your neighborhood bank is not.
Then there is the giant pain in the keister known as IRS Form 990 reporting. Non-profits have to file these to demonstrate they are behaving honestly and ethically – thereby justifying their non-profit status.
Except credit unions don’t have to file them. So they get all the benefits of not paying taxes – with none of the downside. Great cronyism if you can get it.
Speaking of lack of reporting and transparency? Credit unions are supposed to disclose to The Feds the fees they charge their customers. Except the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) – the DC joint allegedly overseeing credit unions? Is no longer requiring credit unions to do so.
In case you were wondering? The last year credit unions reported was 2023. During which they charged about $5.3 billion in fees. Now, unburdened by reporting their take? I wonder if that nauseating number will fall…or rise?
Credit unions also get subsidies. Between their tax and non-profit subsidies? It is estimated they scored $21 billion last year.
All of this is a monstrous raft of credit union cronyism. NONE of which your neighborhood bank gets. Against which your neighborhood bank has to compete.
Neighborhood banks aren’t worse than credit unions or Big Banks. They are just treated worse by the government.
The solution? The 14th Amendment. Correctly interpreted and applied.
Because “equal protection of the laws” – outlaws all of this cronyism.