United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) (click here)
What I found most interesting is the year-long deliberation before the decision was handed down. The case was argued on March 5, 8, 1897 (This was a Friday and Monday dates. March 6 and 7 was a Saturday and Sunday) and decided on March 28, 1898. That length of deliberation would never occur today.
There was an election in 1898. It was a mid-term election while President William McKinley was in the White House. In that election House seats were gained by the Democrats, but, they did not hold the majority. Oddly, enough there was a populist movement in the Democratic Party led by William Jennings Bryan (click here). Bryan would run for president under the populist idea of making silver the basis of the value of the USA currency. He believed the gold standard was bad for the USA's currency. He lost the race.
One way to MEASURE the decisions of a radical right Supreme Court in the year 2018, is to compare their decisions against past decisions. If it is grossly out of step with the past (The USA Constitution was only changed by it's Amendments. That in scientific calculations would be called A CONSTANT.), there must be something wrong and quite possibly a threat to democracy. I would hope if such decisions were discovered, the US House would legislate them into oblivion. I realize the only majority for such an effort is the US Democratic House, but, it is a launching point for the elections of 2020. The electorate should know the appointees by Trump are extremely out of step with the past.
There was an election in 1898. It was a mid-term election while President William McKinley was in the White House. In that election House seats were gained by the Democrats, but, they did not hold the majority. Oddly, enough there was a populist movement in the Democratic Party led by William Jennings Bryan (click here). Bryan would run for president under the populist idea of making silver the basis of the value of the USA currency. He believed the gold standard was bad for the USA's currency. He lost the race.
One way to MEASURE the decisions of a radical right Supreme Court in the year 2018, is to compare their decisions against past decisions. If it is grossly out of step with the past (The USA Constitution was only changed by it's Amendments. That in scientific calculations would be called A CONSTANT.), there must be something wrong and quite possibly a threat to democracy. I would hope if such decisions were discovered, the US House would legislate them into oblivion. I realize the only majority for such an effort is the US Democratic House, but, it is a launching point for the elections of 2020. The electorate should know the appointees by Trump are extremely out of step with the past.
A child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China, becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States, by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution,
"All person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
This was a writ of habeas corpus issued October 2, 1895, by the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California to the collector of customs at the port of San Francisco, in behalf of Wong Kim Ark, who alleged that he was a citizen of the United States, of more than twenty-one years of age, and was born at San Francisco in 1873 of parents of Chinese descent and subjects of the Emperor of China, but domiciled residents at San Francisco, and that, on his return to the United States on the steamship Coptic in August, 1895, from a temporary visit to China, he applied to said collector of customs for permission to land, and was by the collector refused such permission, and was restrained of his liberty by the collector, and by the general manager of the steamship company acting under his direction, in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, not by virtue of any judicial order or proceeding, but solely upon the pretence that he was not a citizen of the United States....
