Many Americans have no knowledge of America’s first “civil rights act,” the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was enacted to counter the Supreme Court’s horrendous Dred Scott decision of March 6, 1857, when the high court ruled, in part, “that they (people of color) had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 reads “Be it enacted … that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and color, without regard to previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except for punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every state and territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens and shall be subject to like punishment, pains and penalties and to none other, any law, statute ordinance or regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became law on April 19, 1866, after Republicans overruled President Andrew Johnson’s veto. Congressional Republicans realized a future Congress could repeal this law and decided to codify it into permanent law, by the 14th Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, which was based on the 1866 Civil Rights Act.

The 14th Amendment reads, in brief, all citizens born or naturalized in the United States and are subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States. The clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was added because after the Civil War ended, the U.S. experienced an influx of immigration from around the world. The framers of the 14th Amendment didn’t seek (illegal) immigrants subject to the jurisdiction of their native countries, having their children granted U.S. citizenship.

Immigrants illegally in the U.S. are not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. and are expressing outright defiance of American law. Therefore, their children are not American citizens by birthright. They are citizens of their parents’ native country, which is how the U.S. Supreme Court should rule on their birthright citizenship decision due this summer.

Steve Wolverton

Parkersburg