Post from Truth Social

You know, ladies and gentlemen, this is my pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Now, in the last half century, I've probably read this a thousand times. I've looked around it, those who wrote it, the history at the time, what they meant, depending on which words, which phrase, which section, which clause we're dealing with. And I went back and I took a look earlier today, and I cannot find this phrase, birthright citizenship. I have looked everywhere. I've looked in the penumbras and emanations, and I can't find it. I've looked at the invisible ink. I can't find it. Birthright citizenship. And yet, last week, there was a big argument in front of the Supreme Court. And the justices, a couple of them were really wise, but most of them were like, kind of strange, getting into policy and politics and quirky examples and things of that sort. So I thought I'd bring us back down to earth and deal with this, because sometimes lawyers, particularly lawyers with black robes, who think they're really smart, they get carried away with themselves. Let's get back to brass tacks here. Let's get back to the facts. You ready? We have this Dred Scott decision in 1857. It was a diabolical decision. And it held in short that blacks, whether enslaved or free, were not US citizens. Now the court led by Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that black people, descendants of imported slaves, were not included in the citizenship definition of the Constitution. And I quote, had no rights which the white man was bound to respect. Now that was a seven to two decision and the decision helped trigger the Civil War, our costliest war with over 700,000 casualties that almost destroyed the country. That war was fought for two reasons, to keep the union together and to eliminate slavery. So following the Civil War, after these horrendous battles and these horrendous casualties and so forth, certain formally Confederate states, they passed restrictive laws called Black Codes. Now what did these Black Codes do? They limited the freedoms of former slaves. Despite the Civil War, it was also a time when the Klan came into being founded by former Confederate generals and so forth. Well, Congress had already adopted the 13th Amendment in 1865, right at the end of the Civil War, that formally abolished slavery throughout the country. But they determined that the 13th Amendment alone was obviously not enough to guarantee freed slaves their civil liberties, including citizenship and equal rights and equal protection and due process. So Congress took action, after all it was controlled by the Republicans. So Congress in 1866 passed our first Civil Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Now that act formally declared that all persons born in the United States, anywhere in the United States except Indians, were citizens, granting them equal protection under federal law. Why not Indians or Native Americans? Because in many cases the tribes were considered their own nations, their own nations. You could be a citizen of two nations at the same time, especially within the Americas. So they passed that. Now what did it state in relevant part? The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which is crucially relevant to this discussion. "Be it enacted that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power." In other words, not a citizen of another country. "Excluding Indians not taxed are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." This again was aimed at what? At the former slaves, their family, their children, their future children, and the black codes in these southern states that were preventing the implementation of equal rights and citizenship. "And such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right in every state and territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, to be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, to purchase, to sell, to hold, and convey real and personal property, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings, for the security of every person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." A complete repudiation of the Dred Scott and a complete repudiation of the black codes. So this act was intended to reverse the Supreme Court's decision and eliminate these black codes. So they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the overwhelmingly Republican Congress. And what happens? Well, the bill goes to a Democrat by the name of Andrew Johnson, who'd been Vice President, but became President on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He was a Democrat from Tennessee. So President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. But there were enough Republicans in Congress to override his veto, so it remained the law. But the Republican Congress was concerned about the ease with which a law could be changed. It even eliminated down the road. They saw what Johnson tried to do. Thus was born the impetus for the 14th Amendment. Their purpose was to constitutionalize the Civil Rights Act of 1866. How do we know this? Because they told us this. John A. Bingham, B-I-N-G-H-A-M, these are great patriots. He was a House Republican from Ohio. In the House, he was the main drafter considered the Madison of the 14th Amendment of the language in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which includes the Citizenship Clause. He was a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in the 39th Congress, which formulated the amendment to provide a constitutional basis for civil rights following the Civil War. That is the constitutionalization of the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a well-known, famous, so-called radical Republican and Republican leader in the House, helped him draft the amendment and helped him usher it through the committee. On the other side of the Capitol, on the Senate, Senator Lyman Trumbull, a Republican of Illinois, notice they're all Republicans, he had drafted the 13th Amendment that had been passed in 1865, abolishing slavery formally, and was a contributor, if not the main writer, of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. He was a key figure also in drafting that process of drafting of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Trumbull. Then we have Senator Jacob Howard, a Republican of Michigan, who introduced the amendment in the Senate, declaring, among other things, it would extend the Bill of Rights to the states, every state. Now what exactly does Section 1 of the 14th Amendment say? The language that is being debated, that was heard in front of the Supreme Court, which they say gave birth to birthright citizenship. Well, we know it doesn't say that. What exactly does it say? Quote, right here, in my little pocket Constitution, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Remember, in the Civil Rights Act a few years earlier, which is intended to constitutionalize, it talked about having no allegiance to a foreign country or foreign nation. Here, they basically implement that by saying subject to the jurisdiction thereof, meaning subject to the United States and the jurisdiction of the United States. "Are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside?" Remember, they're doing this because of these black codes in these formerly Confederate states. "They're citizens of the United States and of the citizen wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or denied to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Boy, that doesn't sound like it has a lot to do with immigration, let alone illegal immigrants, let alone the children of illegal immigrants in the United States, because it didn't.

Transcribed automatically. Expect errors in names and numbers.