American Legal History II
alisong
Citizenshipandthe14thAmendment.pptxTonight’s Timeframe . . .
Reconstruction → 1865 - 1877
Gilded Age → 1870s - 1900
Progressive Era → 1890s - 1920
American Imperialism → 1880s - 1914
World War I → 1914 - 1918
The Roaring Twenties → 1920 - 1929
Great Depression & New Deal → 1929 - 1941
World War II → 1941 - 1945
American Legal History II
Citizenship and the 14th Amendment
What is the role of law in society?
How has the definition of citizenship changed over the course of American history? WHY?
Did the 14th Amendment bring about a revolution in citizenship in America?
Citizenship - Background
Is citizenship constitutional or statutory?
Statutory → Naturalization Acts
Constitutional
Is birthright citizenship territorial or national?
Jus Soli (Soil) vs. Jus Sanguinis (Blood)
Subjects vs. Citizens
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) → Context
Ongoing Concerns:
Northern enthusiasm
Southern opposition
Enforcement & Reconciliation
Previous denial of citizenship:
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Army Surgeon
Residence in free state/territory
7 - 2 Decision:
Majority Opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney
Excerpts
How did the Dred Scott decision restrict citizenship?
How did the Dred Scott decision reflect Antebellum America?
How might the Dred Scott decision have impacted American society?
14th Amendment → Citizenship Clause
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state 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; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
Elk v. Wilkins (1884) - Context
Indian Wars, Expansion, Manifest Destiny
“Going the way of the buffalo . . .”
Warfare and Reservations
1871 → Treaty system eliminated → Railroads
Assimilation → National Unity → Boarding Schools
Dawes Act (1887)
Tribal Land → Individual Parcels
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
Elk v. Wilkins (1884)
John Elk - Born Winnebago on a Reservation
Renounced Tribal Allegiance → Claimed U.S. Citizenship
Attempted Voter Registration in Omaha
Denied by Voting Registrar (Wilkins)
Elk files suit based on the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Decision:
7 - 2; Majority Opinion written by Justice Gray
Excerpts
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
How did the Elk decision restrict citizenship?
How did the Elk decision reflect 19th century America?
How might the Elk decision have impacted American society?
19th Century Chinese Immigration & Labor
Declining American Economy and opposition
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Geary Act (1892)
"Because the first duty of governments is to their own citizens, and securing to them protection and enjoyment of their life and liberty the consideration of the effect on other people is not of consequence."
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) - Context
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)
Born in San Francisco to Chinese Parents - 1873
Parents returned to China - 1890
Visits parents in China twice - 1890 & 1894/1895
Readmitted in 1890, denied in 1895
Decision:
6 - 2 ; Majority Opinion written by Justice Gray
Would citizenship of persons of European descent also be jeopardized?
Excerpts
“Subject to the jurisdiction thereof . . .”
How did the Wong Kim Ark decision restrict citizenship?
How did the Wong Kim Ark decision reflect 19th century America?
How might the Wong Kim Ark decision have impacted American society?
Western Territorial History
Spanish-American War
America as a Colonial Power
Philippine-American War
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Post-War Questions:
American Identity
Constitution and the American Empire
Roosevelt Corollary
Progressivism, Race, & Society
Racial “Threat” & Fragile post-Reconstruction Order
Racial implications of expansion?
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
Downes v. Bidwell (1901) - Context
William Howard Taft on Filipinos: The great majority were inferior to even “the most ignorant negro,” “utterly unfit for self-government,” and would need “the training of fifty or one-hundred years before they shall even realize what Anglo-Saxon liberty is.”
James Bradley Thayer: The federal government should “beware, at every step, promising to the islands . . . any place in the union” as they would then play a role in governing the entire nation.
Anti-Imperialist Pamphlet: “The unwisdom of admitting an inferior race to common citizenship without reference to their capacity for self-government has been demonstrated . . . The negro problem in the south is due to the folly of not making their admission to citizenship dependent on their fitness.”
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
The Insular Cases (1901)
Issues → Varying aspects of the relationship between the United States and the territories acquired after the Spanish-American War.
Downes v. Bidwell → Should Import Duties be charged to goods shipped from Puerto Rico to the U.S.?
Gonzalez v. Williams (1904) → Were Puerto Ricans immigrants?
Other Questions:
Were Puerto Ricans citizens?
Was Puerto Rico incorporated into the Union?
Foraker Act (1900) → Citizens of Spain or Puerto Rico (w/ U.S. Protection)
The Jones-Shafroth Act (1917) → U.S. citizenship after April, 1898; est. gov’t.
Elk - Birth within territory insufficient
To whom does the individual owe allegiance?
Elk . . .
Children of an Ambassador . . .
Puerto Ricans . . .
Elk, Puerto Ricans, and Independent Sovereignty
Additional citizenship designations?
Comparing Elk & the Insular Cases
Ark - Citizenship based upon birth within the allegiance of the U.S., regardless of race.
Ct. did not address native-born insular populations in Ark.
Justices did not intend to cover “non-white” races residing in colonies in Ark.
Ark - While the language of the Citizenship Clause prevented the Supreme Court from excluding from citizenship persons of "alien races" born in the continental United States, the Court could hold the clause not to apply to offshore territories that were geographically distinguishable from the "United States.”
Comparing Wong Kim Ark & the Insular Cases
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
Regan v. King (1943) - Context
Pearl Harbor
Executive Order 9066 → Japanese Relocation and Internment
Anti-Japanese Hysteria
Xenophobia
Clarifying Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
Regan v. King (1943)
Native Sons of the Golden West & American Legion brought suit (John Regan)
Cameron King → Registrar of Voters in SF
Larger Purpose → Overturn Wong Kim Ark
Japanese American Citizens League
Suit denied in District Ct. and Circuit Cts. of Appeal.
Trends in Constitutional Citizenship
What are some contemporary issues relating to Constitutional citizenship?
LOOKING AHEAD → Constitutional application to territory AND those who America exercises authority over?
