rachel wrote:Quixote wrote:But what the 14th does is not only make the slaves a citizen, but switches the "state citizen" into a reversed lower "U.S. citizen" which is a whole new different jurisdiction (class) and as the writers of the 14th from the quote above say!
As has been pointed out, you are confused. There is no hierarchy in citizenship. I am a citizen of Texas and a citizen of the United States. My US citizenship is not above my state citizenship in any sense, nor is it below it.
No hierarchy?... Really!
Yes, really.
rachel wrote:Then why the need for the government to reverse from state citizenship jurisdiction to federal jurisdiction?
As others have pointed out, you're confusing "citizenship" with "jurisdiction." The word "jurisdiction" usually means the power of the courts to enforce laws, and so in that sense the "jurisdiction" of the United States applies to *everyone* within the borders of the United States (other than diplomats and other foreign officials, who are immune from legal process by international treaties).
Even if you use "jurisdiction" as a synonym for "legislative power," the powers of Congress are still limited to those listed in Article I, section 8 (which includes the power to tax), and nothing in the 14th Amendment changed that.
As for why the 14th Amendment was written the way it was written, a little high school history is required.
1. There was slavery in the United States at the time the Constitution was written.
2. Later, Congress tried to limit the spread of slavery by (a) prohibiting the importation of new slaves and (b) requiring new states (such as Missouri) to ban slavery.
3. In Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court ruled that there was *nothing* Congress could do to give a former slave the rights of a citizen. Slaves and former slaves were simply outside the scope of the Constitution, and there was nothing that Congress could do about it.
4. Then, we had a war between the northern (non-slave) states and the southern (slave) states.
5. After the northern states won, they wanted to make sure that former slaves were citizens in every sense of the word, and that the states could not continue to treat them differently than other citizens.
Hence, the 14th Amendment.
Now, you seem to want to make a big deal out of the fact that the 14th Amendment defines US citizenship first, and then declares that US citizens are also citizens of the state in which they reside, instead of the other way around, even though you can't provide any coherent reason for why it might a difference. Allow me to suggest two reasons why the first section of the 14th Amendment might have been written the way it was written:
1. One reason is simple economy of words. As actually written, the 14th Amendment is simple and to the point: Persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside. Phrasing it the other way around is more convoluted, and requires a third step, because you would have to say that persons born in the states of the United States (and the District of Columbia) are citizens of the state in which they are born, and they are citizens of the United States, and they are citizens of the state in which they reside.
2. The federal Constitution is a *federal* Constitution, so it is more natural to begin with a definition of federal citizenship rather than begin with a definition of state citizenship.
But this is still all irrelevant to the question that you can't answer, which is: "What difference does it make?" The Supreme Court has made it clear that the rights and obligations of federal citizenship are completely separate from the rights and obligations of state citizenship, stating (for example) that we have "a citizenship which owes allegiance to two sovereigns, and claims the protection of both." United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 549 (1876).
And do you really think that the laws of the United States only apply to citizens? Do you really think (for example) that the DEA only arrests citizens of the United States for illegal drug trafficking, and that immigrants (legal or illegal) are allowed to go free?