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Bill Clinton recently revealed that if he were in office now that he would “without hesitation” use the 14th Amendment to justify ignoring the congressional debt limit. He was less clear about whether he thought it was constitutional, claiming that he would force the courts to rule on the issue. Here’s how the former president framed his argument: “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy… [Lifting the debt ceiling] is necessary to pay for appropriations already made.” This...

Bill Clinton: I'd use 14th Amendment By: Jennifer Epstein July 19, 2011 06:25 AM EDT Former President Bill Clinton would invoke the 14th Amendment - “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me,” he says - to raise the debt ceiling if he were in President Barack Obama’s shoes, with the deadline to raise the limit just two weeks away. “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy,” Clinton said in an interview with journalist Joe Conason. Clinton...

Lo and behold! As we celebrated this Fourth of July amid the debt-ceiling fight, the netroots and progressive pundits suddenly discovered the Constitution’s relevance in fiscal matters. It doesn’t seem like that long ago — because it wasn’t that long ago — that they ridiculed the very idea of constitutional limits on Congress in economic policymaking, and even mocked the GOP’s public reading of the Constitution at the beginning of the current session. Of the new House rule requiring a statement of the constitutional authority for bills, Ian Millhiser wrote at ThinkProgress that “the constitutional lunatics are now in charge...

Remember when George W. Bush....after using it's reflection to groom his Hitler stash...would wave his scepter and declare stuff conservatives didn't like unconstitutional? Law professors, Democratic senators and liberal commentators have recently raised a tantalizing possibility for ending the congressional wrangling over raising the federal limit on borrowing: President Obama could simply declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and be done with it. Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that the “validity of the public debt of the United States...shall not be questioned.”From The Washington Post What an explosive revelation to make after...

US citizenship is the most sought after commodity on the market today. Yes, you read correctly, "commodity". Where else in the world can one go and be paid to retire, living off of other people's property, when they have no work history? Where else can one go to have a baby and then, in the name of that baby, reap the property of those they have no loyalty or allegiance to? Where else in the world can one enter illegally and not be subject to the laws thereof? Why the good ole' US of Despotism of course! The doctrine of...

UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONARTICLE IISec 5 No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Nearly a year ago now, Mark R. Levin with all his constitutional expertise stated the dual citizenship is not 14th Amendment citizenship. Rather it is citizenship by statute. If so, the how...

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Gov. Paul LePage is facing more opposition to the removal of murals from the Maine Department of Labor, this time in the form of a lawsuit. It was filed late Friday afternoon. Attorney Jeff Young filing the lawsuit against LePage; Laura Boyette, acting commissioner, Maine Department of Labor and Joseph Phillips, director of the Maine State Museum. The mural was removed from the Maine Department of Labor's Augusta office in late March. It is being stored in a building off Route 27 in Augusta that is being rented by the state. LePage had ordered the mural be...

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit Monday against the state of Georgia seeking to dissolve the city charters of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills. Further, the lawmakers, joined by civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, aim to dash any hopes of a Milton County. The lawsuit, filed in a North Georgia U.S. District Court Monday, claims that the state circumvented the normal legislative process and set aside its own criteria when creating the “super-majority white ” cities within Fulton and DeKalb counties. The result, it argues, is to dilute minority votes in those...

Leo Donofrio and friend uncover a definitive statement of the definition of the term "natural born citizen" on the House Floor in 1872 by John Bingham the principal framer of the 14th amendment.

During a debate (see pg. 2791) regarding a certain Dr. Houard, who had been incarcerated in Spain, the issue was raised on the floor of the House of Representatives as to whether the man was a US citizen. Representative Bingham (of Ohio), stated on the floor: “As to the question of citizenship I am willing to resolve all doubts in favor of a citizen of the United States. That Dr. Houard is a natural-born citizen of the United States there is not room for the shadow of a doubt. He was born of naturalized parents within the jurisdiction of the...

"Jeffrey Toobin Issued False Legal Statements to Anderson Cooper Regarding Vattel and the 14th Amendment. With natural born citizen legislation racing through 11 state legislatures, truthful legal analysis is more important than ever. False statements issued on CNN yesterday via an Anderson Cooper interview with Jeffrey Toobin demand correction. CNN, should they not immediately correct the false statements, will be privy to the stench of propaganda. Jeffrey Toobin, alleged to be a “CNN Senior Legal Analyst”, gave a clearly false description of Vattel’s definition of “natural born citizen”. Toobin stated that the Vattel definition requires a person to be born...

Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) have cosponsored the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). All four Members signed onto the bill shortly after it was introduced in the 112th Congress. The bill currently has 56 cosponsors and amends current U.S. code to require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident for a new born to receive automatic citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment extends citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and "subject to the jurisdiction"; it also grants Congress the...

While 2010’s immigration debate centered on the controversial Arizona law, 2011’s promises to be focused on a different — and even more explosive — topic: birthright citizenship. Kris Kobach, the recently elected Kansas secretary of state, is a lawyer and professor of law who specializes in immigration issues. The architect of Arizona’s SB-1070, he is the legal mind behind two new proposals to challenge the automatic granting of citizenship to any child born in the United States, regardless of the legal status of his parents. The first proposal is state-level legislation that would not affect the federal citizenship of an...

As the new Congress convened, a group called State Legislators for Legal Immigration proposed two laws. One would declare that children of parents who immigrated here illegally are not born "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and so are not birthright citizens under the 14th Amendment. Under the other, states would issue two types of birth certificates, one for those born "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and one for everyone else. The states have no power to pass the first proposed law. Congress may be able to, but it is a bad idea that will not halt...

Americans abhor extremism. It is the reason our democracy has lasted for more than 200 years and why we have rejected both socialism and right-wing radicalism. American political parties have generally hewed to the center, unlike their European counterparts, so that even major political shifts moved the country only from center right (as in the Reagan and Bush administrations) to center left (as in the current administration). It is a lesson that both parties should take to heart, but one that poses special problems for the Republicans as one group of extremists attempts to hijack the GOP on a single...

Steve King Moves Forward on Bill to End Birthright CitizenshipPosted by Stephanie Condon January 6, 2011 10:13 AM Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, marking his first day as head of a House immigration panel, introduced a bill on Wednesday to end the practice of birthright citizenship. The bill would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth. It's generally thought that the 14th Amendment provides a constitutional guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the United...

"State Lawmakers Take On Birthright Citizenship WASHINGTON — Conservative lawmakers from five state legislatures launched a joint campaign on Wednesday to try to cancel automatic United States citizenship for the American-born children of illegal immigrants. At a news conference here, Republican legislators unveiled two model measures they said would be introduced in at least 14 states. One was a bill clarifying the terms of citizenship in those states to exclude babies born here of illegal immigrant parents. The second was a compact between states to adopt common positions on the issue. The lawmakers acknowledged that the state bills were not...

Arizona state politicians will introduce model legislation this week to encourage states to prevent children of illegal immigrants from being granted citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Lawmakers in at least 14 states have said they are committed to passing the legislation targeting birthright citizenship. Arizona's anti-illegal-immigrant bill, SB-1070, was also based on model legislation that could be easily copied by states, and at least seven states are likely to pass bills similar to the first Arizona immigration overhaul this year, according to one analysis by an immigrants rights group. Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce will unveil the bill Jan. 5...

Like any responsible pregnant woman, Chen Lei (not her real name) wants the best for her unborn child. She and her husband live in Shanghai; both work for a foreign IT company, and they have more choices than their parents' generation could even dream of. So Chen, 30, is one of an increasing number of mainland Chinese women who are taking advantage of a loophole in American law to travel to the United States to give birth. "Most Chinese women who go to the U.S. to give birth do so for their child's future, for the education, and for the...

Jackson: Obama must tend to black vote By: James Hohmann October 27, 2010 05:38 PM EDT www.politico.com ________________________ __________________ The Rev. Jesse Jackson thinks President Barack Obama could increase black turnout next week, and thus limit Democratic losses, by promising a second economic stimulus that includes funding for urban renewal. The civil rights leader faults the Democratic Party for waiting too late to advertise in key races and laments the president’s failure to better sell his accomplishments. But he said there might still be time to stop Republicans from winning control of the House. “The black vote, which is bigger...