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To: Joachim

Text from the U.S. Naturalization Law of 1790:

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, that the children of persons duly naturalized, dwelling within the United States, and being under the age of twenty-one years, at the time of such naturalization, and the children of citizens of the United States, born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, shall be considered as citizens of the United States: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons, whose fathers have never been resident of the United States: Provided also, That no person heretofore proscribed by any state, or who has been legally convicted of having joined the army of Great Britain during the late war, shall be admitted a citizen as foresaid, without the consent of the legislature of the state, in which such person was proscribed.


6 posted on 01/09/2016 8:11:43 PM PST by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

The Act of 1790 was superseded by the Naturalization Act of 1795, which extended the residence requirement to five years, and by the Naturalization Act of 1798, which extended it to 14 years. The 1798 act was repealed by the Naturalization Law of 1802.

The Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 granted citizenship to people born within the United States AND SUBJECT TO ITS JURISDICTION, regardless of their parent’s race, citizenship or place of birth; but it excluded untaxed Indians living on reservations.

The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended “the naturalization laws” to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.”

In 1898 the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark granted citizenship to an American-born child of Chinese parents. All persons born in the United States since United States v. Wong Kim Ark have been granted citizenship although the Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled on the matter.

But the key is that all of these decisions and statutes affect ACTS OF NATURALIZATION, which by definition are not the same issue as NATURAL BORN citizen.

More pointedly, a statute cannot override a constitutional requirement. The only way a requirement of the U.S. Constitution may be legitimately changed is through the amendment process.


35 posted on 01/09/2016 9:25:40 PM PST by WTFOVR (I find myself exclaiming that expression quite often these days!)
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