American Citizenship…

Civil War Amendments 13-15…

The Irish Flood…

OrientalImmigration…

South America…

Who is a “citizen”?

• Two Types of Citizenship:• 1. Birthright – people born on American soil or US military bases, per 14th

amendment.• Naturalized citizen: a person born in another country who immigrates into the

US and goes through the naturalization process.

A brief history of “citizenship” in the US…• Naturalization Act of 1790: • first rules for granting national citizenship • limited naturalization to immigrants who were free white

persons of good character • excluded American Indians, indentured servants, slaves,

free blacks, and Asians• also provided for citizenship for the children of U.S.

citizens born abroad

Dred Scott v. Sandford

•Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)• landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court•held that African Americans, enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court

Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Civil War Amendments 13-15• first United States federal law to define US citizenship• affirmed that all citizens were equally protected by the law•mainly intended to protect the civil rights of Africans born in

or brought to America after the Civil War. • 13th – freed slaves• 14th –Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection under

the law• 15th- Voting Rights for freed slaves

United States v. Wong Kim Ark - 1898•United States v. Wong Kim Ark(1898)• Supreme Court case ruled that a child born in the

United States of Chinese citizens automatically became a U.S. citizen• established an important precedent in its

interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Elk v. Watkins- US Supreme Court Case• John Elk, a Winnebago Indian born on an Indian reservation and later

resided among whites in the non-reservation U.S. territory in Omaha, Nebraska, where he renounced his former tribal allegiance and claimed citizenship by virtue of the Citizenship Clause. The case came about after Elk tried to register to vote on April 5, 1880, and was denied by Charles Wilkins• The question then was, whether an Indian, born a member of one of

the Indian tribes within the United States is a US Citizen?• The court ruled that members of tribes owed allegiance to their tribe,

and were not US citizens

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

• “BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all non citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States”

• Written partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I.

Non-Citizens and the US Patriot Act…•After 9/11, law passed to expand how long suspected illegal immigrants can be detained – indefinitely!•The USA PATRIOT Act increased reasons why non-citizens can be deported

Gaining US Citizenship….

• See handout!• Take Citizenship Test – Can you pass the test?! Activity…

Social Contract Theory: Classical

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)• Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”• SOCIAL CONTRACT – people give up some individual rights

to all get along

Social Contract Theory: Modern

•We consent to give up some rights to government, BUT…•Government must also respect and protect natural/inalienable rights