The Fourteenth Amendment is being widely discussed again. This focus is on birthright citizenship. Should a illegal parent or parents come to the USA days before a baby is due in order to become a American citizen.

The Fourteenth Amendment with its due process clause has been sighted in over 100 court cases including Supreme Court cases.  But no one is arguing what should be the real issue — was the process to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment legal? You be the judge!

The Fourteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution on July 9, 1868. The facts are that there were 37 states.  It took 28 states to ratify but only 26 states ratified it.  Two states, Ohio and New Jersey, had voted previously to ratify, BUT rescinded their ratification well before the July 9th date. There NEVER were 28 states at the any time that ratified it by July 9th, 1868.

But along came the federal Secretary of State, William Seward. He declared the 14th Amendment ratified. Secretary Steward had NO authority under the Constitution to certify that Ohio and New Jersey had ratified. The state legislatures in each state has the authority to ratify or de-ratify and that authority can not be changed by a federal government official.

The amazing fact is that enough politicians in Ohio and New Jersey must have thought that they had NOT ratified the 14th Amendment therefore Ohio ratified it on March 12, 2003, and New Jersey ratified it on April 23, 2003. You can read about this and many of the Supreme Court cases that used the 14th Amendment to make their decisions in the recently published book, “Christian American Party.”

Roger H. Ewing
Hays