Citizens and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

The anonymous Republican that RBR quotes makes a big deal of the distinction between the constitutional rights of citizens versus non-citizens. This is typical of the rhetoric today, and is based on a fundamental misconception of our constitution.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments state (5th applies to the feds, the 14th to the states) that NO PERSON shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. These amendments have been understood for more than a century to mean that every human being subject to American jurisdiction has, in Jefferson's phrase, "certain unalienable rights."

The limitations on rights of aliens in this country are not many, and tend to revolve around participation in government (jury service, voting, government employment).

In other words, the constitution does not give the federal government the right to torture or imprison without trial persons who just happen not to be citizens. Note how I have phrased that, as well. The constitution gives the government its powers, it' s not some namby-pamby "limit" on otherwise plenary power. Back in the 1990s, libertarians and other "federalists" understood the federal system and the grant of limited authority. Too bad now that the tendency of the right wing to toady to authority has surfaced again.