Free Republic

Sen. David Vitter's bid to require the 2010 Census to ask all respondents about their citizenship was killed today when the Senate voted to invoke cloture and end debate on the Commerce spending bill without having to consider the Louisiana Republican's amendment. The Democratic leadership, which had been trying to block the Vitter amendment since early October, eked out a victory with the bare number of votes needed to invoke cloture, prevailing 60 to 39. Vitter's Democratic colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who had been caustic in her criticism of Vitter's measure, voted with the majority. Vitter intended the citizenship count...

As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its stately way into the new term, a case over the horizon promises to hit the 20,000 gun control laws in this country with the impact of a 9mm round. The prep work came last year in District of Columbia vs. Heller. A narrow 5-4 majority struck down the gun control law in the nation's capital, and for the moment settled an argument over just what the Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, actually means. The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of...

'Hate' Crimes: The House has voted to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation. Aside from violating the Constitution's equal-protection clause, just what does this have to do with national defense? The House voted 281 to 146 Thursday to make it a crime to attack homosexuals and others. The measure was attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense bill. We think the amendment itself is a crime against common sense and the law. Saying "it's a very exciting day for us here in the Capitol," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the passage of the...

Conflict of Interest Resolved by: Brittany Fortier, October 07, 2009 Would you know bias when you see it? A majority of Supreme Court justices don’t seem to, particularly when it concerns their own judicial profession. Brad Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University Law School and former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), discussed the case of Caperton v. Massey Coal at the Cato Institute’s Supreme Court Review on September 17, 2009. The case involved Massey Coal’s decision not to purchase Caperton’s mine located in Buchanan County, VA, after an extended period of negotiations. Caperton, alleging fraud and...

One of the Supreme Court‘s “inventions� used to impose its will upon the people unknown to those who framed and ratified our Constitution, are various tests the court has created which are now used to subjugate and overcome the documented intentions and beliefs under which the various provisions of our Constitution have been adopted. These “tests� began to appear and gain a foothold during the Warren Court of the l960’s. One such test was the "rationality" test under which a law being challenged had to withstand the court’s judgment that the law in question was “rationally based� or “reasonable� to...

Well, surely this will settle finally once and for all that Barack Hussein Obama was really, actually and factually born in the United States and, therefore, is fully qualified according to the U.S. Constitution to be the president that he has been since he took the oath of office on Jan. 20 and a second time shortly after, just to make sure. Not! In yet another quite possibly futile attempt to silence the zombie birther controversy that won't die,

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today admitted that the questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president simply won't go away, even though he contends there are 10,000 things "more important" for Americans to worry about. Gibbs appeared exasperated by the issue, even when it was raised by left-leaning pundit Bill Press, who phrased his interest this way: "Robert, I hate to bring this up but somebody has to … Is there anything you can say that will make the birthers go away?" "No," said Gibbs. "I mean, the God's honest truth is no. I mean, Bill, let's understand...

Editors Note: In December ‘08 a retired CIA officer commissioned an investigator to look into the Barack Obama birth certificate and eligibility issue. On July 21, 2009 westernjournalism.com obtained a copy of the investigator’s report. Here is an unedited version of the report. The Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii I think that I now understand the legal background to the question of where Obama was born. Let’s begin with the statement that Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health released on October 31, 2008. The television and print media...

Dr. Orly Taitz, an attorney involved in the Barack Obama citizenship issue, will be a guest on America Talks Monday evening at 7 pm eastern time. Please join us for this interview to get the latest on the usurper to the Oval Office! Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/americatalks to hear the show. Thank you!

Rumors questioning President Barack Obama’s citizenship have been circulating since the first part of 2008, when opponents of the Democratic nominee — including many supporters of Democratic primary candidate and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — floated rumors that Obama did not meet the citizenship requirements to become president of the United States as set forth in the Constitution. These opponents claim Obama is ineligible because he was — they allege — not born in the United States. Various theories of where President Obama’s birth may have occurred have failed to produce any documentation that suggests he was born...

Researching the Obama birth certificate conspiracy has yielded many theories and wild speculations. Despite the likelihood that most of them are without merit, the one haunting theme i: what is Obama hiding? The forged birth certificate that appeared on Obama’s campaign site has spawned new curiosities, theories and demands to know where in the world is Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Is it in Kenya, Hawaii, Chicago, and Indonesia? We believe the Certification of Live Birth is authentic, but that is not that part where it gets tricky with parsing of words and comparing apples to oranges. The document provided by...

Last week, the media was forced into reporting on the Obama birth-certificate/eligibility issue. It had little choice because respected CNN Journalist Lou Dobbs had the audacity to suggest that Obama should produce his long-form birth certificate to put to rest the doubts of millions of Americans who believe Obama is not constitutionally eligible to serve as President. Immediately and predictably, much of the reporting from the main stream media was in the form of vicious attacks, seeking to discredit Mr. Dobbs and others looking for clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Obama is or is not a “Natural Born Citizen”...

"Cook v Obama Complaint filed today cook-v-obama-tro-fl Tampa, Florida 33602-3800 MAJOR STEFAN FREDERICK COOK, Plaintiff, Civil Action Number: v. 8:09-cv-01382-RAL-EAJ SIMTECH, INC., LARRY GRICE, CEO OF SIMTECH, DEFENSE SECURITY SERVICES, COLONEL LOUIS B. WINGATE, DR. ROBERT M. GATES, UNITED TRIAL-BY-JURY DEMANDED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, Pursuant to 28 USC §1861 and BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, de facto Seventh Amendment PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, Defendants. COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES, DECLARATORY JUDGMENT, AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF 1. Comes now the Plaintiff Stefan Frederick Cook with this Complaint, Declaratory Judgment, and Application for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction to preserve the status quo...

On a story that no news organization has followed more closely than WND – questions surrounding Barack Obama's birth certificate – one of the Internet's top news portals, Google News, is now placing dozens of sources and even left-leaning blogs higher in the search rankings than WND. So appears to be Bing, the new Google competitor. Weeks ago, when WND was one of the few sources for news information about President Obama's eligibility controversy, a search for "Obama birth certificate" on Google News would have produced dozens of WND story links. Today, however, typing in "Obama birth certificate" and sorting...

The Fourteenth Amendment and a “natural born citizen” A common misunderstanding of “natural born” citizenship comes from the Fourteenth Amendment, but a strict reading of the fourteenth amendment is quite clear that this only conveys an at birth naturalized citizenship. Those born in the United States at the time of adoption and afterwards were only citizens. Those who wrote the amendment knew exactly what they were doing. Because of the distinctive use of “natural born citizen” and “citizen,” in Article II, Section 1 the simple fact that being born in the United States does not make one a “natural born...

Buried in the decision yesterday in Ricci, was this pronouncement by Justice Scalia that this case merely postpones the evil day" on which the court must decide "whether, or to what extent," existing disparate-impact law conflicts with the 14th Amendment guarantee

<p>U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocates.</p> <p>Supporters of Deal’s proposal say “birthright citizenship” encourages illegal immigration and makes enforcement of immigration laws more difficult. Opponents say the proposed law wouldn’t solve the illegal immigration problem and goes against this country’s traditions of welcoming immigrants.</p>

FindLaw's commentary: In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress, in addition to proposing to the States the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, enacted seven statutes designed in a variety of ways to implement the provisions of these Amendments. Several of these laws were general civil rights statutes which broadly attacked racial and other discrimination on the part of private individuals and groups as well as by the States, but the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional or rendered ineffective practically all of these laws over the course of several years. In the end, Reconstruction was abandoned and with rare exceptions no...

Hate crime legislation passed the US House of Representatives on April 29th of this year. For those who believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, this is not a bill to celebrate. Nat Hentoff, who over the years has become a powerful First Amendment advocate points to one of the problems with this legislation.

In a peculiar but not unprecedented turn of events, an anti-gun control plaintiff lost his case, last month's Nordyke v. King(pdf), but nonetheless managed to elicit a groundbreaking pro-gun rights declaration from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.In deciding that it was OK for California’s Alameda County to bar the possession of guns on county property—a law that quashed a gun show that had long been held on county fairgrounds—the Ninth Circuit affirmed that the Second Amendment does control state and local actions as well as federal ones. That was a step farther than last year's decision in District of...

Activists seeking to eliminate the Electoral College in favor of a popular vote to elect the president boast that their movement is almost one-fifth the way to its goal. Four states – Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey – which represent 50 of the 270 electoral votes needed to declare a presidential election winner, have committed to an agreement whereby they would grant their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, a move that – if adopted by enough states – would reduce the Electoral College to irrelevancy. With most of the nation's states considering similar bills...

The House Judiciary Committee will on Wednesday consider a proposed federal “hate crimes” bill, H.R. 1913. It would, for the first time, allow the federal government to step in and prosecute any violent crime anywhere in the country that “is motivated by prejudice” against a number of protected characteristics, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (that is, cross-dressing and sex changes). All violent crimes should be vigorously prosecuted - but this novel legal approach violates several core principles and holds a number of dangers. 1) It violates the “equal protection of the laws” by protecting some victims more than others....

The debate over the Constitution's meaning takes a surprising turn; a pivotal gun-rights case Art Resource, NYThe nation's founders in 'The Signing of the Constitution,' a 1940 painting by Howard Chandler Christy. A debate is building over how to interpret the document. After the Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's handgun ban last June, gun-rights advocates trained their sights on similar restrictions in Chicago and Oak Park, Ill. Last month, the National Rifle Association received ammunition from an unlikely source: the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal litigation shop. In a brief filed with the federal appeals court in...

WA State citizens and legal permanent residents, us green card holders need your help! Please contact the members listed and ask them to support HB1052. The bill goes to them on the 22nd of January 2009. This bill restores the 2nd A rights of green card holders under the 14th equal protection clause... WA State is the only state that denies legal permanent residents 2A rights in all of the 50 States. Please Help Email the following people and ask them to support HB1052 House Committee on Judiciary members and contact information: Representative Steve Kirby Democrat Tacoma (360) 786-7996 Kirby.Steve@leg.wa.gov...

I want to call your attention to a statewide initiative in California that may change the debate on the automatic citizenship that is wrongly bestowed upon children born to illegal aliens and foreign visitors in the United States. The initiative—The California Taxpayer Protection Act—is being planned for the June 2010 California ballot. This may seem like a distant point on the horizon, but it’s really not when you consider the herculean efforts necessary to secure a spot on the ballot in the state. Supporters are being sought from across the nation for this important initiative. Initiative Background The initiative is...

Nordyke v. King, presenting the 14th Amendment incorporation issue, is set for argument Jan. 15 at 1 PM. Here's its Wiki page, with links to the briefs. (An appeal has its own Wiki page? I feel so 20th Century at times like this). The case had already been briefed, with the incorporation issue raised below but not briefed, when DC v. Heller came down. The panel on its own motion directed briefing of that issue. I can see three possible outcomes. 1) 2A is incorporated and binds the States: the regulation at issue is unreasonable and struck down. VERY cert-worthy,...

Updated 11/7/08 I have been bombarded lately with requests to revisit the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendments “subject to the jurisdiction thereof� language. Some desire confirmation whether the language simply implies temporary obedience to laws, while others want to confirm whether it requires something more direct and substantial. I’ll spare the reader a lengthy treatise by making this short and to the point. Perhaps the first most important thing to understand about national birthright is that there was no written national birthright rule until the year 1866. One will look in vain to find any national law on the subject...

U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. wants to end what he calls the nation’s “anchor baby situation” — and he’s willing to amend the U.S. Constitution if that’s what it takes. In a Wednesday debate in Danville, Goode — a vocal foe of illegal immigration — repeatedly denounced the policy that guarantees American citizenship to anyone born in the United States. “The anchor baby situation is a magnet for illegals to come to our country,” Goode said. “I’m opposed to that.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2008 Republican platform, in language that is hostile to illegal immigrants, says the makeup of Congress should be determined by counting only those legally residing in the United States in the next census. "The integrity of the 2010 census, proportioning congressional representation among the states, must be preserved," says the platform language, which is a reinterpretation of the Constitution that could affect how congressional seats are apportioned. "The census," it says, "should count every person legally abiding in the United States in an actual enumeration." The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1868, says representatives...

Contrary to popular opinion, current practice, and the conventional wisdom, children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. should not receive automatic citizenship. These children, sometimes called "anchor babies," have been thought to deserve automatic or birthright citizenship in accordance with the Constitution. However, Dr. Edward J. Erler, a political science professor at California State University, San Bernardino and a fellow at the Claremont Institute, makes a persuasive case against giving birthright citizenship to illegal-alien children born in the U.S. This month's issue of Hillsdale College's journal Imprimis discusses his views. It is one of the most valuable publications on...

In the July issue of Imprimis, an outreach publication of Michigan's free-market-oriented Hillsdale College, Edward J. Erler, professor of political science at California State San Bernardino, challenges the prevailing wisdom that the 14th Amendment bestows "birthright citizenship" on the newborn child of any illegal alien who can manage to avoid deportation long enough to give birth -- usually in a taxpayer-funded hospital. The 14th, adopted in 1868, was intended to make formal what the Civil War had accomplished de facto -- the recognition that the former slaves were now citizens of the United States, with the full rights thereof. Thus...

The Constitution is simple, short and easy to read. There is no excuse for any reporter to write about it, without reading it. The latest example is an article about anchor babies in the Orlando Sentinel today (29 September) by Jim Stratton. The article concerns a comment about anchor babies by Fred Thompson, Republican candidate for President. If you haven’t followed the illegal immigration debate, anchor babies are children born on US soil of illegal immigrant parents. The babies get citizenship. Then, the provisions for “reuniting families” kick in, and the baby assists the parents in becoming legal. It is...

Regular Guy Paul linked to an Ann Coulter column suggesting that if we took the vote away from women, we'd never have another Democratic president.  I'm almost tempted to sidetrack this post because I caught a hilarious comment in the comments section that rebutted the notion that fascism is a leftist ideology - it most definitely is - but that's for another day. I'm not even interested in Coulter's comments per se, considering they were mostly tongue-in-cheek, but something that Paul said caught my attention. Generally speaking, I would support repealing all the Constitutional amendments of the 20th century. So...

BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) — Republican White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday he wouldn't try to change laws that make citizens of children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants, noting that it's a matter determined by the Constitution. "That's a very delicate balance that's been arrived at, and I wouldn't change that," Giuliani said in response to a question while campaigning at Sun City Hilton Head, a sprawling retirement community down the South Carolina coast from Charleston. In Wednesday night's Republican debate, Giuliani and nomination rival Mitt Romney traded accusations of being soft on illegal immigration, and Giuliani took...

"Ladies' Night" was a hit single for the band Kool and the Gang in the '80s, but now it's become the subject of a lawsuit. New York attorney Roy Den Hollander has filed a class action lawsuit against several Manhattan bars and clubs, alleging that their ladies' night practices are unconstitutional. Hollander charges that when they host ladies' night they are violating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Hollander is seeking to be named class representative for all men charged more money or burdened by stricter time restraints than woman. He seeks nominal damages and an...

From its beginnings as a nation, the United States differed from Europe in its citizenship policies, welcoming all those born on U.S. territory as U.S. citizens. Now Rep. Dan Lungren of California and 89 other Republican members of Congress want to end the tradition of birthright citizenship. Eleven of 19 Republicans in the California congressional delegation have signed on to sponsor a terrible bill (HR 1940) that would move the United States toward becoming a restrictionist nation of descent based on parentage. In practical terms, if this notion passed, no longer could people born in the United States simply show...

A common misconception is that the Constitution through the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship upon everyone born in the United States, whether or not they were born to an illegal alien. Actually, the Constitution itself does not provide citizenship to those born of illegal parents; the Supreme Court only said it did in an 1898 decision known as 'U.S. v. Wong Ark Can', and it is politically correct to accept this Supreme Court decision while ignoring others. The problem is that the court majority in the Wong Ark Can case, as is so often today, 'made law' according to their personal...

On his campaign swing through Florida, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has hammered away illegal immigration, saying that America must secure its borders to ensure national security.[snip] Friday, he went a step further.Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, said it might be time to reconsider the country's long-standing practice -- one prescribed by the Constitution -- of granting citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil "That law was created in another time and place for valid reasons," Thompson said during a campaign stop here. "It probably needs to be revisited."

Parents and children of America have a grievance. Government compels us to pay into the public educational system, but will not allow us to choose the schools that best meet the needs of our children. This choice is left to government educrats who decide which schools our children attend and what they will be taught, including indoctrination conforming to their political and religious outlook. Parents who opt out of this system are penalized with the loss of educational funding. Clearly, this violates the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise...

14th Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution was passed by both houses on 8th June and the 13th June, 1866. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Most Southern states refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore Radical Republicans such...

As the Senate is mulling the details of a compromise immigration bill hammered together by the odd couple of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, and as members of Congress hear from their constituents over the Memorial Day recess, it may be worthwhile to put the issue in historical context. For most of our history, the United States had no restrictions on immigration at all. I am told that my Canadian-born grandfather was a "nickel immigrant": He took the five-cent ferry from Windsor, Ontario, north to Detroit roundabout 1896. This situation resulted from America's strong demand for labor, coupled with...

The American Civil Liberties Union again is suing under the twisted rational the fourteenth amendment somehow disables local government from displaying anything remotely religious in nature. The latest victim targeted by the ACLU is the rural Florida county of Dixie, which has a Ten Commandments monument at the steps of its courthouse.The lawsuit says the monument violates the First and 14th Amendments because it is not part of a historical display and because the uniquely Christian message of the Ten Commandments on a government building could intimidate people with different religious beliefs.Well I’d say if anyone finds any community...

Report: 40 percent of county's Medi-Cal births to illegal immigrants By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer NORTH COUNTY ---- A state report quietly released last spring shows illegal immigrants made up the largest single group of those giving birth at taxpayer expense in the state and in San Diego County in 2004. The May report, "Medi-Cal Funded Deliveries," states that of the 14,350 taxpayer-funded births in the county that year, 5,814, or 40.5 percent, were to illegal immigrants. That is an 18 percent increase over the 4,916 Medi-Cal-funded deliveries to illegal immigrants in San Diego County in 2001, as...

Miami ? A South Florida lawsuit that seeks to temporarily block deportations of immigrants with children who are U.S. citizens was given a chance to go forward Friday. The lawsuit argues that U.S.-born children are deprived of their civil rights when authorities send their undocumented parents to their home countries. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are 3.1 million children in that situation nationally. Although U.S. District Judge Paul Huck dismissed the original complaint, he gave lawyers until Jan. 16 to fine-tune their case and resubmit it. Initially filed in Miami federal court in October, the case is supported by...

Political Correctness will be our undoing. Secret Santa According to Sher Zieve, “Due to concerns regarding Austria’s growing Muslim population, the country’s officials are said to have banned references to St. Nick—also known as Santa Claus—in its kindergarten schools. The Muslim immigration into Austria is said to be at 400,000 and growing.” [snip] What kind of pansy-ass kids are we talking about here? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met one kid who was afraid of Santa Claus. What’s up with Austria? [snip] The Immigration Back Stab According to The Washington Times’ Charles Hurt, “Congress will approve an...

Anyone born in the United States is an American citizen, a right with post-Civil War roots and defined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But a controversial bill filed for the 2007 session of the Texas Legislature, one of a flurry of measures seeking crackdowns on illegal immigration, is challenging this long-held tenet of U.S. citizenship. House Bill 28, filed Monday by Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, would exclude U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from access to public education and health care, unemployment, public housing, disability and other state benefits. Analysts think it is the first-ever state challenge of...

Last week we were inundated with news stories about the verdict rendered in the case of two Enron executives, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who were found guilty on multiple charges, which included various counts of fraud and insider trading. No doubt there are many, particularly the thousands of Enron employees whose pensions and retirement accounts were tied to the performance of Enron stock, whose financial welfare suffered due to the actions of these two executives and the subsequent ruination of the corporation. But there was another story, highlighted on the front page of USA Today, which has far-reaching impact...

1 hour, 18 minutes ago The Washington state Republican Party has adopted a resolution calling for an end to the Constitution's guarantee of automatic citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Delegates supporting that platform said their concerns included the cost to public hospitals and the expense of welfare for the children of indigent or deported illegal immigrants. "I think voters realize immigration is a problem and we are trying to grapple with solutions to the illegal-immigration problem," Diane Tubeless, state GOP chairwoman, said of the resolution adopted Saturday with little debate and few dissenting votes. The 14th Amendment...

Dealing with Anchor BabiesBy Congressman Mac Collins (Ret. R-GA)Each year the United States grants citizenship to a quarter of a million children of illegal aliens. There is a common misconception among the public that such citizenship is a constitutional guarantee. The fact is that the constitutional question of whether the 14th amendment grants citizenship to children of foreigners born on U.S. soil was addressed by the Supreme Court over 100 years ago in the Slaughter House Cases and, again, in 1971 in the case of Rogers v. Belle . All existing case law confirms that the Fourteenth Amendment does not...

A proposal to deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil ran aground this month in Congress, but it is sure to resurface............. At issue is "birthright citizenship," provided for since the Constitution's 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. Some conservatives in Congress say the amendment was never intended to grant citizenship automatically to babies of illegal immigrants. ...........a revocation of birthright citizenship in an immigration bill passed by the House in mid-December. GOP House leaders did not let the proposal come to a vote.