Record #: R2018-1239   
Type: Resolution Status: Failed to Pass
Intro date: 11/14/2018 Current Controlling Legislative Body: Committee on Finance
Final action:
Title: Expression of support for constitutional rights of all U.S. born and naturalized citizens
Sponsors: Burke, Edward M., Villegas, Gilbert
Attachments: 1. R2018-1239.pdf
Related files: R2019-362
RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees birthright citizenship; and

WHEREAS, the plain language of the United States Constitution provides for birthright citizenship in Section 1, Clause 1 ofthe Fourteenth Amendment, which states, "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and ofthe State wherein they reside;" and

WHEREAS, the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land per Article VI, Clause II, commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause; and

WHEREAS, in the event of a conflict between the Federal Constitution and an executive action or even an Act of Congress, the Constitution shall control and trump such law; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court is the court of final appeal for conflicts in the interpretation of terms or meanings of the words used in the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, the provisions in Section 1 have been interpreted by the United States Supreme Court to the effect that children born on United States soil, with very few exceptions, are United States citizens; and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) held that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, a man born within the United States to foreigners (in that case, Chinese citizens) who have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States and are carrying on business in the United States and who were not employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power, was a citizen of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Wong Kim Ark Court clarified that the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof excludes only children born to foreign diplomats and children born to enemy forces engaged in hostile occupation ofthe Country; and

WHEREAS, legal scholars refer to this kind of guarantee as jus soli, or "right of the territory," which is a principle known at English common law, a pr...

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