I believe the USofA is the only country where, in the founding documents, the highest legal authority in the country, the fundamental rights of citizens are stated as being granted by a non-physical, spiritual… icon. Might sound a bit kooky to the atheist, however, the power is in the fact that that icon, the source of our unalienable rights, cannot be assassinated, cannot be voted out of its highest position, cannot be overthrown by any physical being, and thus, the source of every citizen’s rights is guaranteed so long and the Constitution is considered the supreme law of the land. Even the atheist, who doesn’t believe there is a creator, is guaranteed unalienable rights. That’s the enduring power of the concept of our rights being endowed by an ethereal, non-physical entity. Sounds kooky but works equally for everyone and not easily subverted.
How has Citizenship Evolved?
Misconceptions have arisen and persisted due to a word’s legal definition being very different from the common definition. We the Peeps think common meaning, government and courts involve legal meaning. This truth was revealed so blatantly by Bill Clinton’s statement, “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”, and Bill Gates made a similar statement -- they know the difference! Wake up Peeps.
When it comes to understanding citizenship and your rights, legal definitions are all that matter. Quoting SCOTUS decisions often blurs the big picture, and pictures are worth a thousand words… I hope the following pictures will bring clarity to this ‘evolution’!
Prior to the Declaration of Independence, most of Europe, and certainly the United Kingdom were monarchies - the King and Queen were the Sovereign, and all others were their ‘subjects’. The Sovereign was the seat of all political power. ‘Subject’ status is a lesser status; you are ‘subject’ to the Sovereign’s will.
Even though many ‘subjects’ from England came to the New World, they were still subjects of the king of England.
The Declaration of Independence severed the ties to the King of England and those former ‘subjects’ of the King became The Sovereign.
So the picture is now,
All political power was now a ‘distributed’ sovereignty in We the People.
We the Peeps realized that some form of government was necessary, so they delegated specific powers enumerated in State Constitutions to create State governments:
There is one detail which needs to be addressed at this time… the Sovereign, We the People, really only included landowners, which were Caucasian men. The thinking at the time was very patriarchal, and rationale was that only those who had a stake in the running of the country, and that should be able to vote and hold office, were landowners. We have evolved since then… and we need to evolve further, but that is for a different article.
Some elements of existing as a ‘union of states’ really are common to all states, like national defense, interstate commerce, and how one state citizen is treated when in another state. Next in this evolution was the creation of a national government. The debates occurred and the result was a federal government with enumerated powers spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. The picture then became,
As more states joined the union of states, they joined on an ‘equal footing’ as the original 13 states. If your state is not one of the original 13, its Constitution should have an ‘equal footing clause’. In the above picture, there are 3 Sovereigns, and that is currently still the case:
We the People, ultimately the source of all sovereign power
State governments
Federal government
It makes sense that the original structure for how the federal Congress is set up, as bicameral, two houses, has one house for each of the other two sovereigns. I.e., The House of Representatives is where representatives elected by We the People sovereign are, and the Senate was where each sovereign state government was represented — i.e., a state government has interests that are unique to being a ‘government’, as opposed to the interests of individual people (citizens). You may not remember but Senators were NOT originally elected by the populace, but by each state’s legislature. This change was a major blow to the states as sovereign entities in their own right, and continued the concentration of power in the federal government. One of the Amendments changed it to a vote of the populace, but I’m too tired to look it up right now!
At this time, there were ONLY State citizens.
Eventually, slavery is abolished via the 13th Amendment. But that created a tremendous dilemma… and after the passing of the 14th Amendment, we have this:
This is how it stands today with two citizenship statuses: state cit and US cit.
I can remember reading some court case that referred to citizens of the United States (D of C) as being ‘subjects of Congress’, or that they have ‘subject status’. That makes me very uncomfortable… Are US Citizens considered subjects of Congress… meaning Congress is essentially our sovereign. This is a distinct possibility… and its not how this country was meant to work.
I would bet that the average person living in this country thinks there is only one meaning to the term ‘United States’… its obvious, right? You know, the United States of America, the good ol’ USA. The courts and government regulations don’t see it that way… for them, there are 3 legal definitions for United States?
For the atheist, “your creator” could be Mother Nature.
Thanks for all the work you’ve done researching & writing these. I look forward to reading the rest.
Very timely subject. Please define as you are using it "YOUR CREATOR". This is key concept and subwhat vague in the way your use it.