Republicans love to harp on the Constitution. They carry virgin (untouched by human eyes) copies to hold up and wave around anytime they confront an issue that they oppose. Unfortunately for them, the Constitution opposes much of what they want to do. They want to keep undocumented workers illegal so their corporate masters can prey on their labor and to stir up hatred in their base, so they are fronting a bizarre interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Yesterday, the Miami Herald reported that “[a]s one of its first acts” next year, the GOP-controlled Congress will advance a bill by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) — the incoming chairman of the subcommittee that oversees immigration — that would modify the 14th amendment to deny “birthright citizenship” to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer this morning, King explained just how he plans to go about radically changing citizenship requirements. According to King, it doesn’t involve a Constitutional amendment, but rather, simply reinterpreting the 14th amendment in a way that would treat undocumented immigrants like foreign diplomats and exclude them from being subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. laws…
…Watch it:
King clearly doesn’t understand the dangerous implications of mandating that anyone who comes to the U.S. illegally is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. government. King’s interpretation of the 14th amendment could create a situation in which, rather than being legally defined and treated as removable “illegal aliens,” undocumented immigrants could only be declared personae non grata — a legal term under international law used to refer to “unwelcome” foreigners, usually diplomats, who are inherently under the jurisdiction of their home governments… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
In their rush to depress wages for Corporocons and Plutocons, while promoting racism for the InsaniTEA wing of the party, Republicans plan to violate the Constitution by statute. While this is clearly unconstitutional, there is always the risk that the extreme ideologues on SCOTUS will decide otherwise, with potentially tragic consequences.
If the undocumented are not subject to the jurisdiction of US law, that effectively gives them immunity for any crimes they may commit here. I’m not calling them criminals, but all segments of our population include lawbreakers.
15 Responses to “Republicans Plan to Dismantle the US Constitution”
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Here’s the test of the metal in the Dems. I hope they summon courage. I hope Obama understands Who’s coming to Dinner, Nobody….
Tim, they’d love to have him for dinner.
Altering the Constitution to discriminate against a group they dislike is not only grossly unethical, but it sets a dangerous precident. I hope the Democrats raise their voices against this.
We had damn well better, Ahab.
The GOP/Tea Buggers HATE the constitution, cause it goes against their ideology. Sure they WANT to change it, but the cannot, cause there is no way they can muster 2/3rds of each house. True Americans should read this article and say why did we vote for such hateful, greedy, arrogant, constitutional hating morons. This should be a wake-up call to all Americans just what the GOP/Tea Bugger congressmen/women want to do to this country. The constitution has been in effect in this country for many many years, and SHOULD NEVER BE CHANGED FOR NOBODY, no matter how CRAZY they are!!!!
Allen, I agree with almost all of what you said, but if we never changed the Constitution, blacks would still be slaves, and women would not have the right to vote. I think the bar is set sufficiently high with the current requirement of 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of all state legislatures.
Hey, this might not be so bad after all. If they make it retroactive, I’d be forced to move back to Norway. I can think of a helluva lot of worse places to live (including the USA if this type of idiocy is allowed).
Sadly, there’s little comfort in the fact that King’s wacko “ideas” are patently unconstitutional: The concepts of “corporate free speech” and “corporate personhood” were both pulled straight out of thin air (or more accurately, the terminal part of Scalia/Thomas/Roberts/et al GI anatomy that I don’t ever want to think about) – with absolutely NO basis in our Constitution.
But I’ll fight the good fight:
http://www.acslaw.org/files/Wydra%20Issue%20Brief.pdf
I agree, nameless. There is nothing remotely Constitutional about it, but Republicans must be kept out of the White House until Roberts and Scalito retire.
I am reminded of that scene at the end of Lethal Weapon (2?), where the guy yells he has diplomatic immunity for the crimes he committed.
This is the problem with these so-called “common sense solutions” – they are born out of ignorance and cause more harm then they supposedly prevent…
Great minds, Kevin. It crossed my mind as I was writing it.
It’s a short step from denying foreign visitors of all categories rights their under the law to extending such efforts to those whose net worth doesn’t meet some arbitrary value. Allegedly conservative Republicans would love to return the nation to the condition of the earliest years of the nation, a time when only wealthy White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male holding real property had voting rights. If the Democrats continue to refuse to stand up for this nation and tell the wealthy it’s time they contributed to the common welfare, then we who do feel so will take steps to create representation that will.
Realist, I fully agree in theory, but given our stacked-deck electoral system, wouldn’t we have the best chance of the representation through taking over the Democratic party?
I suppose all the natural-borns from illegal aliens could form an independent nation such as the Native Americans wisely maintain. Then they could treat with the US government for the land illegally taken from their ancestors, say Texas. I’d be all for returning Texas to Mexico.
I really like that idea! 😉
That works, but only if we include Oklahoma and Arizona in the deal.