Speech #430007414

These appended sections gave Congress no power that it had not without them. Authority for the I gislation contained in this civilrights bill cannot fairly be deduced from any of these amendments. unless it be from the first section of the fourteenth. This section reads thus: All persons born or naturalized in the United States. and subject to the jurisdiclion 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 ininities of citizens of the United States. nor shal any State deprive any person of life. liberty. or property without dim process of law. nor deny to any person within its jurisdition the equal protection of the laws. The first paragraph merely declares who are citizens of the United States and what constitutes citizenship of the State. A citizen of a State must have been born in the United States or naturalized. and be a resident of the State. while to constitute a citizen of the United States. he need only be born or naturalized in the United States. It can hardly be conceived that this declaration or definition. as to the once muchmooted question of citizenship. has conferred upon Congress power to legislate upon the rights of citizens in the States. and to divest and nullify the jurisdiction of each State over its own citizens. Nor is it believed that such legislation is claimed by its advocates to be deducible from this first paragraph of the first section of the fourteenth amendment.