The Un-Constitutional Census

From The American Thinker:

June 01, 2010


The unconstitutional census

Jed Gladstein



The Constitution of the United States begins with a Preamble in which "We the people of the United States" are the very first words. The Preamble goes on to say that the people of the United States "establish this Constitution for the United States of America." So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the people of the United States created the Constitution of the United States primarily for the benefit of the citizens of the United States.



Since 1868, U.S. citizenship has been defined by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States ..." Thus, with few exceptions, to be a citizen of the United States means that you have to be born in the United States or undergo a legally established "naturalization" process.



It is no secret that there are between twelve and thirty million people illegally in the United States at present. These people were neither born in the United States, nor have they gone through the naturalization process prescribed by our laws. As a result, they are not citizens of the United States and they are beyond the reach of constitutional provisions intended to apply to citizens of the United States. One of those provisions is Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution.



Under Section 2 of Article I, the United States House of Representatives must be composed of House members chosen every two years. The number of Representatives apportioned to each state of the Union is determined by an "enumeration" (i.e., a census) taken every ten years of the people living in each state who are legally eligible to vote in statewide elections. While different states at different times have allowed non-citizens to vote in statewide elections, by 1926 every state in the Union had legally abolished that practice. Thus, to be eligible to vote for a member of the House of Representatives today, you must in fact be a citizen of the United States of America.



So, why is it that the United States Census Bureau doesn't even inquire whether the people being counted in the current census are American citizens? Is it that the Constitution of the United States doesn't mean anything to federal officials anymore? If so, then they have only themselves to blame as they apprehensively watch the Tea Party movement gain momentum throughout the United States of America.





Posted at 09:19 AM