U.S. citizenship is obtained either by birth or naturalization, the legal process that a qualified person must go through to be accepted as a citizen. In 1857, the Supreme Court established its own racist view of American identity in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857). There, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney said that a black man generally cannot be a citizen of the United States — that he has “no rights that the white man must respect.” Historically, many of Taney`s claims were simply false: as dissenting judges and other critics of Taney made clear, free blacks were considered citizens in several states at the time of its founding; in fact, some blacks had even fought in Washington`s army and had the right to vote on the Constitution itself in several states in 1787-88. The newly formed Republican Party set out to reverse various aspects of Dred Scott – the most pressing being the decision that Congress could not generally ban slavery in federal territories. While some constitutional issues are really difficult, with non-existent or contradictory frame-era sources, the relevant documents here make it clear that a “naturally born citizen” means a citizen by birth without having to go through a naturalization process. The Supreme Court has long recognized that British common law3×3 is a particularly useful source for understanding constitutional concepts. See Smith v. Alabama, 124 U.S. 465, 478 (1888).
and resolutions of the First Congress.4×4. See Wisconsin v. Pelican Ins. Co., 127 U.S. 265, 297 (1888). Both confirm that the original meaning of the term “naturally born citizens” includes persons born abroad who are citizens by birth, on the basis of the nationality of one of the parents. However, aliens are considered “persons” for purposes of the procedural clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendments. In Plyler v. 1982 Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 102 p. ct. 2382, 72 L.
Ed. 2d 786, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that even illegal aliens are “persons” within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment equality protection clause for public education purposes. A corporation is also considered a citizen for certain purposes. He is a citizen of the United States and the state under whose laws he was organized. A particular state, usually Delaware, is chosen to be incorporated because that state levies lower taxes and its laws favor business. Once the corporation is incorporated in the designated State, it is a citizen of that State, but it may apply for permission to do business there in any other State. Questions related to the duties of citizens often arise in the same context as the freedoms enjoyed by citizens of the United States. In one of his most famous speeches, The Duties of American Citizenship, President Theodore Roosevelt declared: “It should be evident in this country that every man must devote an appropriate portion of his time to the fulfillment of his duty in the political life of the community.
No one has the right to shirk his political duties for any pleasure or business whatsoever. Every person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States is protected by most of the guarantees and guarantees of the Constitution. A U.S. citizen traveling abroad retains U.S. protection. If a person`s property is stolen while in a foreign country, the U.S. consul can lend their money to return to the United States. U.S.
citizens, of course, must observe and obey the laws of other countries during their visit, but if a U.S. citizen is arrested, a U.S. representative from the ambassador`s office can visit them and inform the foreign government that the U.S. citizen`s treatment is being reviewed. A person born outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and his distant possessions of relatives who are both U.S. citizens is a citizen and a citizen of the United States at birth if one of the parents resided in the United States or in one of his distant possessions before the birth of that person. If only one parent is a citizen and the other is a citizen – but not a citizen – the parent who is a citizen must have been physically present in the United States or one of their distant possessions for an uninterrupted period of one year prior to the child`s birth for the child to be a citizen and citizen of the United States at birth. A person born out of wedlock in a foreign country acquires U.S. citizenship at birth if the mother was a citizen at the time of birth and had previously resided continuously in the United States or one of its foreign possessions for one year prior to birth.