Blind Prophecy

“I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the (14th) amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen,” Sen. Jeff Sessions said as Republicans push for hearings to modify the 14th Amendment.

Now, I realize that I’m not an elected official sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution or anything, but I would guess that what the drafters of the 14th amendment had in mind was something along the lines of, “we should probably put it in the constitution that people born here can’t be denied citizenship because of the color of their skin.”

They might have been thinking about all those individual states who were ignoring federal authority in passing laws that denied people, based on their race, the right to enter into employment contracts, the right to protection from abuses of the police power of the states, the right to be heard in a court of law, and the right to not be bought and sold as slaves. It’s a crazy theory, but I think a lot of academics and historians would probably agree.

But what do I know? It’s not like I’m the minority party’s ranking member on the judiciary committee, tasked with reviewing and confirming federal judges with lifetime appointments to interpret and enforce the Constitution. If I were that guy, I’d probably want to spend some time developing some theories about what the framers of the 14th amendment were intending. Especially as it relates to passing laws that target brown people for special exclusion from the rights, benefits, and obligations of United States citizenship.

On the other hand, maybe Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and his buddies, Tweedleracist and Tweedleracister from Arizona, have a point. If the advancements of modern society were unfathomable to the people who wrote a part of the Constitution, we should think about changing it, and in the meantime, allow states to figure out a way to pass laws seemingly inconsistent with the spirit of the document while staying within the exact letter of the language.

Like that second amendment with the thing about bearing arms. No way the framers were thinking about petty criminal carrying concealed handguns and semi-automatic weapons. I demand Congressional hearings! And until that happens, the federal government and the courts should let the states pass laws that they think fit within what the framers could have contemplated.

Filed under: politics by Jere Keys