Response to opinion piece

In a recent editorial, Tom Brennan called for repeal of the 14th Amendment, characterizing it as one section about birthright citizenship “among other things,” and three sections about Civil War military service and irrelevant to today’s world. Anyone thinking repeal sounds dandy will want to read the parts he glossed over, especially the second sentence:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Those are some extremely important bits of the Constitution, right there. Due process is everyone’s protection against arbitrary government persecution. The Equal Protection Clause is the legal foundation for a century and a half of civil rights progress. Repealing the 14th Amendment would take a sledgehammer to a load-bearing pillar of American ideals, and is not an idea which deserves to be taken seriously. It looks like the Civil War is unfortunately relevant to today’s world, if anyone in this century would willingly erode liberty and equality just to keep some folks from becoming citizens.

Ruth Hulbert,

Palmer