The 14th Amendment and the Protection of Civil Rights
QUALIFYING CITIZENSHIP Abstract
The 14th Amendment, and its “Citizenship Clause,” has been the means by which questions of citizenship are resolved. Over the past two years, a group of state lawmakers have sought a way to change the constitutional meaning of citizenship by circumventing the 14th Amendment without seeking to alter the Constitution itself. The attempt to create a dual birth certificate system is their attempt to identify and separate the American-born children of illegal aliens. In a violation of due process, this move to redefine what it means to be an American citizen is a legal matter, requiring the amending of the ...
