Listen and I’ll tell you a Christmas story. Let me tell you what Dickens was really trying to tell us. This is not a story the greedy Grinches want you to know. But it is an American story. And it is a story that rang throughout the world until greedy politicians tried to tell you it wasn’t good for you and me.
It’s is a story about the greatest language in our Constitution.
In 1787 the American people wrote and in 1788 the American people ratified the promise that the Constitution was designed “to promote the general Welfare,” not just the welfare of the rich and mighty or British aristocrats.
In 1865 the people wrote and, just before Christmas, they ratified the words which said:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
That wasn’t the law in Europe but it became the law in America. Law is for everyone.
In 1866 they wrote and in 1868 they ratified the words that read:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
They wrote that because the Supreme Court had denied that African-Americans were citizens, had the rights of citizens, or could even use the courts, but those who wrote that 1868 language also discussed their clear understanding that the citizenship clause covered people who’d come to the United States to build the country we are all so proud of from places as distant as Europe and China. They were making good on the promise of the Declaration of Independence that “that all men are created equal,” a promise that would ring out of the Liberty Bell and reach the far corners of the globe, a promise that frightened and still frightens dictators.
Then, they continued:
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 to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Notice the triple guaranty to make the point as clear as they were able – they guaranteed to all the “privileges or immunities of citizens,” and immediately followed that language about citizens by guarantying to any “person” the rights to “life, liberty … property … due process … [and] equal protection of the laws.”
Equal protection should have made the voting rights of African-Americans and all other citizens of the US clear, but, to be sure, they made clear in the Fifteenth Amendment that they meant:
The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
In 1920 they added that the right to vote could not be denied to our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.
In 1964 they barred any fee or charge for voting, and in 1971 they lowered the voting age so that those who served in our military could vote, and reinforced the promise of the Fourteenth Amendment that this is a government of, by and for the people and that anyone engaged in “insurrection or rebellion against” it may not hold office.
That’s a real Christmas story, a story of the great principles that Christ and the leaders of the world’s major faiths tried to teach us.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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