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15 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 1 (2012)
By Virtue of Being Born Here: Birthright Citizenship and the Civil Rights Act of 1866

handle is hein.journals/hllr15 and id is 3 raw text is: BY VIRTUE OF BEING BORN HERE:
BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND THE
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866
Mark Shawhan*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..................................................    2
I. CITIZENSHIP IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT .....................    4
A. The Common Law Citizenship Tradition ................    4
B.  The  Consensualist Alternative  ........................  6
C. A Rejection of Consensualism ........................   8
II. THE CivIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866.........................      9
A. Civil Rights Act: Senate Debate ...................... 11
1. January 30th: Consensualists Object to Citizenship
of the Freedmen, and the Question of Indian
Citizenship is First Raised .......................  1
2. January 31th: Renewed Consensualist Objections,
and Excluding Indians not taxed as the Best
Solution to the Indian Citizenship Question ........  15
3. February 1st: The Choice Between Excluding
Indians not taxed and Excluding Indians subject
to Tribal Authority ............................. 18
4. February 2nd: Closing Thoughts on Whether the
Freedmen Were (or Could Become) Citizens ....... . 22
B. Civil Rights Act: House Debate...................... 23
C. Civil Rights Act: Veto Override ...................... 27
III. THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND CITIZENSHIP ........... ..28
A. The Citizenship Clause Debate ......................    29
IV. APPLYING PAST TO PRESENT..............................     33
CONCLUSION ....................................................   36
* Law clerk to the Hon. Debra Ann Livingston, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit, 2011-12. J.D. 2010, Yale Law School. For helpful comments, thanks to Patricia
SInchez Abril, Brian Barnes, Jennifer Bennett, Bethany Berger, Kaitlin Ainsworth Caruso,
Stella Burch Elias, Benjamin Johnson, Cameron Kistler, Gerard Magliocca, Kristin McElroy,
Sonja Ralston, Peter Shawhan, Rogers Smith, Adam Wilson, Daniel Winik, and the U Street
Legal Workshop. Special thanks to Peter Schuck for support and constructive criticism and to
Will Baude for starting and keeping the ball rolling.

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