🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <65676@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt0418c@prism.gatech.EDU (Shane Wm. McWhorter) writes:
>Who was the Bill of Rights written for? Does the US Constitution guarantee
>rights of non-US citizens?
>
>Who qualifies for US Citizenship?
>
>It seems to me that to be a US Citizen, you have to be naturalized,
>or be born of US Citizen parents. Having a birth certificate from
>a US territory helps.
>
>EXACTLY.
>
>You see? BORN of US parents, BIRTH certificate. Does this mean
>a fetus is not legally a US Citizen until birth?
>
>Then the US Constitution does not guarantee the Life, Liberty, and
>Pursuit of Happiness to a fetus, legally speaking?
>
>Can a state do that? Consider a fetus a citizen of the state, if not
>of the United States? Can the state consider any other person a citizen
>who's rights must be protected, if not a US Citizen?
>
>Will there be such things as Certificates of Conception?

From what I have learned over the years, the Bill of Rights and
constitution apply to EVERYONE in the US... not just citizens.
Even though non-citizens don't have the right to vote, if charged with a crime,
they go through the same process (like noriega... well, actually,
most people aren't kidnapped from a sovereign nation and shipped to a 
foreign country for a rigged trial, but that's beside the point.), and
are entitled to all rights.
(Unless you're dealing with the INS, IRS, DEA, NSA, FBI, or CIA of course :-)

Sooo you cannot use the argument, "Because a fetus isn't a citizen, it doesn't 
have any rights." 

I would imagine that the federal government has sole juristiction in
defining who is a citizen. (Plus its laws override any overlapping state 
laws...) States can't do things like make treaties with foreign nations,
etc...

Plus the supremacy clause

"This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law
of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any
thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary
notwithstanding."
 
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