The Fourteenth Amendment — The Answer After the War · Sitting 4
Dred Scott Overruled in a Sentence
Taney, 1866 Act, Section 1, Wong Kim Ark. Occasion was race. Grammar is persons. Qualifier is Howard, not cable news.
- 40 min
- Practice · Reflect
- 15–18
Parent briefing · 5 minutes, before they sit
Howard, May 23, 1866. Wong Kim Ark 169 U.S. 649 (1898). Present-scope fights are 7.5, adult only — this sitting states the sentence. 7.5 not recruited to a caucus.
Hard edges
- Do not ask whether birthright is good policy.
- Occasion is not the same as grammar.
If they say
- “It was meant only for former slaves.”
- Occasion is not the same as grammar. The sentence says persons born or naturalized, subject to jurisdiction.
- “Subject to the jurisdiction means you have to be a citizen already.”
- That would make the sentence a circle. Howard named diplomats and tribes. Wong Kim Ark is the case.
Objective
The student can sequence Dred Scott, the 1866 Act, Section 1, and Wong Kim Ark without treating present policy as 1868 paraphrase.
Statute, then Constitution
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 already declared persons born in the United States, not subject to a foreign power, to be citizens. Congress put the rule in the Constitution because a later Congress could repeal a statute. Taney's citizenship holding is the target. Wong Kim Ark: a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents who were not diplomats was a citizen. The Chinese Exclusion Acts could not unwrite a constitutional sentence.
Qualifier without a trapdoor
Subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Howard named children of ambassadors and foreign ministers, and members of Indian tribes not taxed. The qualifier is not a circle (you must already be a citizen). It is also not nothing. Later fights about unlawful presence belong in 7.5, not as a paraphrase of 1868.
Big idea
Birthright citizenship was written on purpose to overrule Dred Scott and to outlast a statute. Grammar is persons. Qualifier is real.
Try this~35 min total
Four beats
35 min- Dred Scott / 1866 Act / Section 1 / Wong Kim Ark. One line each.
- Write Howard's named exclusions. Contrast with a cable-news brief.
- Practice: occasion was race; grammar is person.
Lesson guide
Ask after you try
After the reading.
- Ask the model to explain birthright citizenship. Fail accident. Fail missing qualifier. Fail missing Dred Scott.
- Sequence.
- Howard.
- Not the vote.
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Dinner table
If Congress feared a later majority would repeal the 1866 Act, what does that tell you about putting a rule in the Constitution?
Sits beside
- AI. Do not ask good policy. Ask Taney, sentence, Howard, Wong Kim Ark.
Booklet
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Integrity. Sentence, qualifier, case. No policy vote.