It may not be as oft-quoted as the First Amendment or as contested as the Second Amendment, but the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution plays a critical role in supporting some of our closest-held notions of American freedom and equality.For one, it clearly states that American citizenship is a birthright for all people who are born on American soil 맥스카지노� something that President Donald Trump has announced he wants to end. Not only would this unravel 150 years of American law, it would loosen a significant cornerstone of the Constitution맥스카지노�s interpretation of American identity.In order to better understand this part of the 14th Amendment, we turned to a pair of experts in constitutional and immigration law: Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center; and Erika Lee, former director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.The amendment has five sections, but we will only be dealing with the first, which contains the Citizenship Clause and three other related clauses.But first, some historyThe 14th Amendment is known as a Reconstruction amendment, because it was added to the Constitution after the Civil War in 1868. That places it at an important historical crossroads, when lingering wounds of divisiveness and animosity still plagued the nation and the reality of a post-slavery America begged contentious racial and social questions.맥스카지노�Thomas Jefferson said men were created equal, but the original Constitution betrayed that promise by allowing for slavery,맥스카지노� says Jeffrey Rosen. 맥스카지노�The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were designed to enshrine Lincoln맥스카지노�s promise of a new America.맥스카지노�The amendment맥스카지노�s first section begins:However, as so often is the case, this reaffirmed American ideal fell short of reality. Rosen notes that issues of civil rights and equal treatment continued to be denied to African Americans, LGBT people and other citizens for more than a century after the amendment맥스카지노�s ratification.And Erika Lee points out that Native Americans weren맥스카지노�t even allowed to become citizens until 1925.맥스카지노�Even as (these amendments) were written, obviously there were major built-in inequalities and maybe at the time weren맥스카지노�t intended to apply to everyone,맥스카지노� Lee says.Video below: Law professor discusses Trump's birthright citizenship orderWhy was citizenship by birthright such an important concept?맥스카지노�Citizenship was a central question left open by the original Constitution,맥스카지노� says Rosen. 맥스카지노�At the time it was written, the Constitution assumed citizenship, but it didn맥스카지노�t provide any rules for it. In the infamous Dred Scott decision, the Chief Justice said African Americans can맥스카지노�t be citizens of the U.S. and 맥스카지노�had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.맥스카지노�맥스카지노�The U.S. Supreme Court맥스카지노�s ruling in the Dred Scott case, named for a slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom, has since been widely condemned.맥스카지노�The 14th Amendment was designed to overturn this decision and define citizenship once and for all, and it was based on birthright,맥스카지노� Rosen says. 맥스카지노�It is really important that it맥스카지노�s a vision of citizenship based on land rather than blood. It is an idea that anyone can be an American if they commit themselves to our Constitutional values.맥스카지노�What does it mean to be 맥스카지노�subject to the jurisdiction thereof?맥스카지노�According to Rosen, this is one of the greatest questions of citizenship. There are two clear examples of people not subject to the jurisdictions of the United States: diplomats and their children, and 맥스카지노� at the time of the 14th Amendment 맥스카지노� Native Americans, who were not recognized as part of the American populace.맥스카지노�With those two exceptions, everyone who was physically present in the United States was thought to be under its jurisdiction,맥스카지노� Rosen says. 맥스카지노�There are numerous Supreme Court cases that reaffirm that understanding, and almost as importantly, there are lots of congressional statutes that assume birthright citizenship.맥스카지노�Some scholars, like John Eastman of the Claremont Institute맥스카지노�s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, have argued that children of undocumented immigrants are not 맥스카지노�subject to the jurisdiction맥스카지노� of the U.S. and thus should not be considered citizens under the Constitution.But Rosen says this is a minority view among constitutional scholars of all political backgrounds.맥스카지노�While the Supreme Court has not explicitly ruled (on the issue of children of undocumented immigrants), Congress has passed all kinds of laws presuming their citizenship,맥스카지노� Rosen says.What is the connection between birthright citizenship and immigration?In 1898, 30 years after the 14th Amendment was adopted, the Supreme Court reached a defining decision in a case known as the United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Lee explains that Wong Kim Ark was the American-born son of Chinese immigrants.맥스카지노�Asian immigrants were the first immigrants to the U.S. that couldn맥스카지노�t be considered white,맥스카지노� Lee says. 맥스카지노�So they are treated differently. They are taxed differently, they are stripped of many rights. In the 1880s, they are excluded from immigration and barred from citizenship.맥스카지노�So, the main question of the case was, could a person born in America be a citizen in a place where his parents could not be as well? The Supreme Court decided yes, and the case remains the first defining legal decision made under the banner of birthright citizenship.맥스카지노�(The Supreme Court맥스카지노�s decision) said that the right of citizenship is not a matter of inheritance, that it never descends from generation to generation, it is related to where you맥스카지노�re born,맥스카지노� Lee says. 맥스카지노�It맥스카지노�s about the power of place. That has been a very expansive, and at the time, a corrective measure to a more exclusionary definition both legally as well as culturally as to what an American is.맥스카지노�Why must it be stated that the privileges of citizenship need to be protected?Before the Civil War, states didn맥스카지노�t necessarily have to follow the provisions stated in the Bill of Rights; only Congress had to. The 14th Amendment changed that.맥스카지노�This second sentence of the Amendment means that states have to respect the Bill of Rights as well as basic civil rights and the rights that come along with citizenship,맥스카지노� Rosen says. 맥스카지노�The idea was that there were rights that were so basic; so integral to citizenship that they could not be narrowed by the states.맥스카지노�Despite the promises and protections of citizenship, Lee says it is abundantly clear that different racial groups were, and often are, seen as unable or unworthy to function as true American citizens. After all, basic rights of citizenship, like suffrage and equal treatment, were denied certain racial groups for a hundred years after the 14th Amendment.맥스카지노�The idea of a law applying to 맥스카지노�all people맥스카지노� seems to be clear. But in reality, the debate and the laws and practices that get established are very much based on a hierarchy of, well sure, all persons, but some are more fit and some are more deserving than others,맥스카지노� she says.Throughout history, Asian immigrants, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants and their children, to name a few, have had unspoken cultural caveats applied to their ability to be Americans.맥스카지노�For Asian immigrants, the racial argument at the time was that 맥스카지노�It didn맥스카지노�t matter whether one were born in the U.S. or not, Asians as a race, are unassimilable. They are diametrically opposite from us Americans,맥스카지노�맥스카지노� Lee says.맥스카지노�That was the argument that was used to intern Japanese citizens. It was the denial of citizenship in favor of race: 맥스카지노�The ability to become American, the ability to assimilate, they just didn맥스카지노�t have it.맥스카지노�맥스카지노�Why was it important to legalize rights for non-citizens?So far, we맥스카지노�ve covered the first clause, the Citizenship Clause, and the second, the Privileges and Immunities Clause. These both deal with American citizens.The final two clauses, the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection clause, are a little different, and deal with the rights of all people in the United States.Eagle-eyed Constitution readers will notice that the 14th Amendment contains a 맥스카지노�due process맥스카지노� clause very similar to the Fifth Amendment. This, says Rosen, was a technical addition to ensure the Fifth Amendment wasn맥스카지노�t theoretically narrowed down to protect only American citizens.맥스카지노�The 14th Amendment distinguishes between the privileges of citizenship and the privileges of all people,맥스카지노� Rosen says. 맥스카지노�The framers (of the amendment) thought there were certain rights that were so important that they should be extended to all persons, and in order to specify that they needed a new 맥스카지노�due process맥스카지노� clause.맥스카지노�What does it mean to have 맥스카지노�equal protection of the laws맥스카지노�?맥스카지노�At the time following the Civil War, at its core, it meant all persons had the right to be protected by the police, that the laws of the country should protect all people,맥스카지노� Rosen says.맥스카지노�In the 20th century, more broader questions were litigated under the 14th Amendment, like Brown v. Board of Education 맥스카지노� whether segregation was constitutional. Cases involving the internment of Japanese citizens, case from the marriage equality decisions, even Roe vs. Wade have strains of equal protection language and invoke due process law.맥스카지노�Another interesting case that speaks directly to the immigration side of the 14th Amendment debate is the 1982 case of Plyler v. Doe, in which the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for the state of Texas to deny funding for undocumented immigrant children.Why are we talking about all this right now?Trump signed a flurry of executive actions Monday on his first day back in the White House, including ending birthright citizenship. Because the right is enshrined in the Constitution, any change would need to be addressed via a constitutional amendment or the courts.But Trump맥스카지노�s interest in repealing birthright citizenship isn맥스카지노�t a new idea. He mentioned it seven years ago, during his first term. And Lee says for the last 30 years or so, there have been several overtures by the political right to explore 맥스카지노�citizenship reform,맥스카지노� a timeline that she says aligns with the ascendancy of modern American conservatism.Lee fears if the current push to end birthright citizenship is successful, it could have wider implications than most people assume. People from other countries who are here legally on work or student visas, for instance, could have children who do not legally belong to the only country they know.맥스카지노�There have been attempts since the 1990s to break away birthright citizenship, or narrow it down, and it did not seem that they would have a chance at succeeding until now,맥스카지노� she says.맥스카지노�To me this not only reflects the ascendancy of an extreme right position but also a return to a very narrow and exclusionary definition of Americanness.맥스카지노�