14th Amendment to the Constitution
So my mother, who is a great believer in Fox News and everything they say, tells me this morning that New Hampshire is going to secede from the Union. I tell her, mom, states can't secede from the union, its against the constitution. She of course, doesn't believe me, because like many people she has never ever read the constitution of the United States of America.
What my mother is talking about is a movement in many states(read: red states) to reaffirm the 10th admendment to the constition while completely ignoring the 14th. Here is the 10th Admendment:
The governmental powers not listed in the Constitution for the national government are powers that the states, or the people of those states, can have.
And here is the 14th, enacted after the Civil War, including only the representatives of the states that remained loyal to the Union:
Section 1. 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.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
The long and the short of it is this. It is an act of treason for a state to attempt to secede from the Union because it would deny that states citizens their rights as United States citizens. The part of the 14th amendment that says this is, ' No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States', basically saying that you are a citizen of the United States first, and Tennessee second. I'm also really fond of the part in section 2 that essentially says its okay to disenfrancise Native Americans. Nobody else, but Native Americans sure, who cares about them? I'm really really not a fan of the 14th admendment, its like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa or putting a, 'and they lived happily ever after' at the end of a greek tragedy. It doesn't belong. It is a declaration of tyranny in a document espousing our freedoms. I understand why they added it, civil war and all, but still. Its an awful piece of legislation that would never have passed under any other circumstances.
NEVERTHELESS!!!!
The conservatives that are proposing these ridiculous pieces of legislation to their state assemblies, the ones affirming their states sovereignty, should be forced to go back to primary school and take a social studies class. It makes me sick to my stomach.
How can our country arise from the mess it is currently in when our leaders have less education and knowledge than your average 10 year old?
/End Rant
P.S. THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY
:)
What my mother is talking about is a movement in many states(read: red states) to reaffirm the 10th admendment to the constition while completely ignoring the 14th. Here is the 10th Admendment:
The governmental powers not listed in the Constitution for the national government are powers that the states, or the people of those states, can have.
And here is the 14th, enacted after the Civil War, including only the representatives of the states that remained loyal to the Union:
Section 1. 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.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
The long and the short of it is this. It is an act of treason for a state to attempt to secede from the Union because it would deny that states citizens their rights as United States citizens. The part of the 14th amendment that says this is, ' No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States', basically saying that you are a citizen of the United States first, and Tennessee second. I'm also really fond of the part in section 2 that essentially says its okay to disenfrancise Native Americans. Nobody else, but Native Americans sure, who cares about them? I'm really really not a fan of the 14th admendment, its like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa or putting a, 'and they lived happily ever after' at the end of a greek tragedy. It doesn't belong. It is a declaration of tyranny in a document espousing our freedoms. I understand why they added it, civil war and all, but still. Its an awful piece of legislation that would never have passed under any other circumstances.
NEVERTHELESS!!!!
The conservatives that are proposing these ridiculous pieces of legislation to their state assemblies, the ones affirming their states sovereignty, should be forced to go back to primary school and take a social studies class. It makes me sick to my stomach.
How can our country arise from the mess it is currently in when our leaders have less education and knowledge than your average 10 year old?
/End Rant
P.S. THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY
:)