Citizenship

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how opinions concerning the rights of citizenship have been voiced since the founding of the United States with issues such as civil rights, whether they be Native American, African-American, women, or educational rights. It looks at how ,since September 11, 2001, new opinions have emerged concerning the preservation of the Bill of Rights by the many who fear that laws such as the Patriot Act will erode the rights of citizens. It shows how debates about citizenship help us to better understand the dynamics of Constitutional development within American history because the debates begin at the grassroots level of society. It reviews some famous cases throughout American history that have challenged the definition of who is a citizen.

From the Paper:

"In Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857, discussed the question of citizenship and the Fifth Amendment (Supreme pg). Dred Scott was a slave who was taken by his owner, Sanford, into northern federal territory and felt that he was free due to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which excluded slavery from sections of the U.S. territories, thus, when he came back to Missouri, Scott sued Sanford for his freedom (Supreme pg). The Court ruled that slaves were property, not citizens and therefore Scott was not entitled to use the courts (Supreme pg). Focusing on the rights of the owner, the Court declared that slaves had no rights and that freeing Scott would be in violation of the Fifth Amendment because it would deprive Sanford of his property without due process of law and moreover declared that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional (Supreme pg). "

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