Thursday, June 12, 2008

Gitmo Habeas: The Citizenship Question

The question is: how a non-citizen enjoys Constitutional rights.

The answer:


Because the Constitution’s separation-of-powers structure, like the substantive guarantees
of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, see Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 374 (1886), protects persons as well as citizens, foreign nationals who have the privilege of litigating in our courts can seek to enforce separation-of-powers principles, see, e.g., INS v. Chadha, 462
U. S. 919, 958–959 (1983).



This is (mutatis mutandis) the same rationale as the "anchor baby" answer. Somehow, the 14th Amendment now includes everyone on the face of the Earth.


Well, fine. If that's the case, then the 16th Amendment applies as well, right?


Tax the bastards. That's worse than jail-time, anyway.

1 comment:

illusory tenant said...

Oh, I see you found it already.

I don't think the 14th Amendment applies to everyone on the face of the Earth, at least not until the U.S. moves to exercise jurisdiction over them. Then it becomes a prickly question, as you can tell by yesterday's set of opinions.