Course:
Introduction to National Status
To define this, we are going to look up the two terms separately:
POLITICAL.
Pertaining or relating to the policy or the administration of government, state or national. People v. Morgan, 90 Ill. 558.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1319
STATUS.
The rights, duties, capacities and incapacities which determine a person to a given class. Campb. Austin 137.
The legal relation of individual to rest of the community. Duryea v. Duryea, 46 Idaho 512, 269 P. 987, 988.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1580
A political status is the status you bear in your society, relating to your ability to manage or influence your state, government or nation as well as your relation to the rest of your community.
Your political status is largely one of two types, either you’re free or you’re a slave owned by another. Which are you?
Think back to all your years in school, what is your political status? Were you ever taught this?
There are many fine examples of political status that you’re already aware of, such as “King”, “President”, “Peon”, and “Slave”. These are political status that determine how these individuals relate to their governments and their people. You probably studied plenty about presidents in your history class, maybe some kings and emperors as well. But what is yours?
You might answer that you’re an American, but that’s not your political status, that’s your nationality. Think a little harder you might say you’re a U.S. Citizen. As a U.S. citizen are you free or are you a slave?
Let’s find out.
A great place to look is the case of Dred Scott v Sandford, where an escaped slave was determined to be property protected under the 5th amendment in 1856 just before the civil war.
The Missouri court ruled in this landmark case that negros are not, and cannot be, American Citizens.
“The majority held that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves,” whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore did not have standing to sue in federal court. Because the Court lacked jurisdiction, Taney dismissed the case on procedural grounds.”
[…]
So, too, a person may be entitled to vote by the law of the State, who is not a citizen even of the State itself. And in some of the States of the Union, foreigners not naturalized are allowed to vote. And the State may give the right to free negroes and mulattoes, but that does not make them citizens of the State, and still less of the United States. And the provision in the Constitution giving privileges and immunities in other States does not apply to them.
Dred Scott v. Sandford https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/60us393
Before you let your brain jump to “That’s just racism” stay focused: we are studying political status here. The point of this case is that Dred Scott was not, and could not be, a citizen of the United States or a citizen of a state.
Dred Scott had no political status whatsoever, and therefore had no standing to defend himself and his personal freedom in contrast to natural-born Americans. He was a slave under the ownership of another with no choice in the matter.
A few years later the civil war was fought and 2 amendments were added to the constitution to address this injustice to the negroes:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The 13th Amendment https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/
Slavery shall not exist within the jurisdiction of the states unless as punishment for a crime. We know this is referring to the states specifically due to the mention of “their” jurisdiction, plural.
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. 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 deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The 14th Amendment https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment
The individual states were still passing laws specifically against negroes (the jim crow laws). So Congress responded by taking the negros under their direct jurisdiction and protection against their states while also granting them state citizenship. In short, a U.S. Citizen is typically a citizen under a foreign jurisdiction residing in a state, namely jurisdiction of the Federal Government. We know this because this amendment speaks to “the” jurisdiction thereof, singular.
If this sounds far-fetched, the Library of Congress says this quite plainly:
Congress also passed two amendments to the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment made African-Americans citizens and protected citizens from discriminatory state laws. Former Confederate states did not get congressional representation until they adopted this amendment. The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote.
Library of Congress Article: Reconstruction and Rights https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/civil-war-and-reconstruction-1861-1877/reconstruction-and-rights/
The only citizenship mentioned in the 14th amendment is U.S. citizenship.
This sits in the U.S. Code to this day:
§1981. Equal rights under the law
(a) Statement of equal rights
All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.
42 USC 1982: Property rights of citizens https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=%28%22white+citizens%22%29&f=treesort&fq=true&num=1&hl=true&edition=prelim&granuleId=USC-prelim-title42-section1981
Those within the jurisdiction of the United States are U.S. Citizens. However as a U.S. citizen you are also a state citizen. Did you know that you had two political statuses? How do they relate?
Thus, the dual character of our citizenship is made plainly apparent. That is to say a citizen of the United States is ipso facto and at the same time a citizen of the state in which he resides. And, while the Fourteenth Amendment does not create a national citizenship, it has the effect of making that citizenship “paramount and dominant” instead of “derivative and dependent” upon state citizenship. [Footnote 3] “In reviewing the subject,” Chief Justice White said, in the Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366, 245 U. S. 377, 245 U. S. 388-389:
“We have hitherto considered it as it has been argued from the point of view of the Constitution as it stood prior to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. But, to avoid all misapprehension, we briefly direct attention to that [the fourteenth] amendment for the purpose of pointing out, as has been frequently done in the past, how completely it broadened the national scope of the [Federal] government under the Constitution by causing citizenship of the United States to be paramount and dominant, instead of being subordinate
Colgate v. Harvey (1935) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/296/404/
Your status as a U.S. Citizen is paramount and dominant to your state citizenship status, as further backed here:
With reference to the jurisdiction and power of federal courts and removal of actions a citizen of the District of Columbia is not a “citizen of a state”, Neild v. District of Columbia, 110 F.2d 246, 249, 71 App.D.C. 306; Glaeser v. Acacia Mut. Life Ass’n, D.C.Cal., 55 F.Supp. 925, 926;
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, Page 310
As a U.S. Citizen, are you free or are you a slave? Let’s begin by defining what it means to be a slave:
Let’s begin by defining what it means to be a slave.
The condition of a slave; that civil relation in which one man has absolute power over the life, fortune, and liberty of another.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1559
Broken down, it’s when another has absolute control and ownership over your future gains (life), your present assets(fortune/property), and your ability to make your own choices in the moment(liberty).
Let’s start by defining what License and Permission means:
Definition of License: Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1067
LICENSE.
Permission by some competent authority to do some act which, without such permission, would be illegal. State ex rel. Zugravu v. O’Brien, 130 Ohio St. 23, 196 N.E. 664; Solberg v. Davenport, 211 Iowa, 612, 232 N.W. 477, 480; Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) v. State Board of Equalization, 110 Mont. 5, 99 P.2d 229, 234
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Definition of Permission: Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1298
PERMISSION.
A license to do a thing; an authority to do an act which, without such authority, would have been unlawful.
If you require a license to do something then you are under the ownership of another, as a license grants you liberty to do what you otherwise can’t at the permission of another.
Defining these three things:
LIFE.
“Life” protected by the Federal Constitution includes all personal rights and their enjoyment embracing the use and enjoyment of the faculties, acquiring useful knowledge, the right to marry, establish a home, and bring up children, freedom of worship, conscience, contract, occupation, speech, assembly and press. Rosenblum v. Rosenblum, 42 N.Y.S.2d 626, 630, 181 Misc. 78.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 1074
PROPERTY.
[…]
More specifically, ownership; the unrestricted and exclusive right to a thing; the right to dispose of a thing in every legal way, to possess it, to use it, and to exclude every one else from interfering with it. Mackeld. Rom. Law, §
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition: Page 1382
LIBERTY.
Freedom; exemption from extraneous control.
[…]
The power of the will to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons. See Booth v. Illinois, 22 S.Ct. 425, 184 U.S. 425, 46 L.Ed. 623; Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 142, 24 L.Ed. 77; People v. Warden of City Prison, 51 N.E. 1006, 157 N.Y. 116, 43 L.R.A. 264, 68 Am.St.Rep. 763.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition: Page 1064
Fortunately, these are spelled out quite plainly in the Incorporation Doctrine, but only apply against your state:
The incorporation doctrine is a constitutional doctrine through which parts of the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution (known as the Bill of Rights) are made applicable to the states through the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Incorporation applies both substantively and procedurally.
Prior to the doctrine’s (and the Fourteenth Amendment’s) existence, the Supreme Court found the Bill of Rights to only apply to the Federal government and to federal court cases. […] States and state courts could choose to adopt similar laws, but were under no obligation to do so.
After the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court, through a string of cases, found that the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth amendment included applying parts of the Bill of Rights to States (referred to as incorporation).
As a note, the Ninth Amendment and the Tenth Amendment have not been incorporated, and it is unlikely that they ever will be. The text of the Tenth Amendment directly interacts with state law, and the Supreme Court rarely relies upon the Ninth Amendment when deciding cases.
The Incorporation Doctrine
As a U.S. Citizen, you don’t have the full Bill of Rights against your state, and even less so against the Federal Government since you’re not of the political status that the Constitution affords protections to as a state citizen and a member of the People.
The protections left out are as follows:
If after reading all this you still believe you are free, then you may close this page and continue living your life. We pray that the Federal and State Governments will be kind to you.
However, this servitude is voluntary. It has to be because it’s spelled out quite plainly in our Constitution. If you want to know what it means to volunteer out and take back what is your birthright, keep reading.
A national is plainly defined as such:
Section 21: The term “national” means a person owing permanent allegiance to a state.
Section 22: The term “national of the United States” means (A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.
Section 38: The term “United States”, except as otherwise specifically herein provided, when used in a geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Title 9 U.S.C., Section 1101 https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1101%20edition:prelim) Note: These definitions are directly from the Organic Statutes at Large 66, Public Law 414, Title 1
A national, no adjectives, is a political status owing permanent allegiance to a state. Internally within the U.S. system we’re considered U.S. Nationals (“Technically” correct) but we stand on National, no adjectives.
Here’s evidence of this distinction:
citizen – noun 1 a: a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it b: a member of a state
Merriam-Webster Definition of Citizen https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citizen
Merriam-Webster distinguishes between two types of citizens, one who owes allegiance (is subject to) a government, and one who is a member of a state. Further proof of this existence can be found in Black’s Law Dictionary:
In American Law
One who, under the constitution and laws of the United States, or of a particular state, is a member of the political community, owing allegiance and being entitled to the enjoyment of full civil rights. Amy v. Smith, 1 Litt. (Ky.) 331; Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162, 22 L.Ed. 627.
[…]
But a state and the federal government each has citizens of its own, and the same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a citizen of a state. The government of the United States can neither grant nor secure to its citizens rights or privileges which are not expressly or by implication placed under its jurisdiction. All that cannot be so granted or secured are left to the exclusive protection of the states. U. S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 23 L.Ed. 588. With reference to the jurisdiction and power of federal courts and removal of actions a citizen of the District of Columbia is not a “citizen of a state”, Neild v. District of Columbia, 110 F.2d 246, 249, 71 App.D.C. 306; Glaeser v. Acacia Mut. Life Ass’n, D.C.Cal., 55 F.Supp. 925, 926;
Citizen Definition: Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition Page 310
The first definition are your U.S. Citizens, and the second is the distinction between Federal Citizens (U.S. Citizens) and Nationals (State Citizens).
You won’t however find any reference to “State Citizen”, “State National”, “American State National”, or anything like that in any Public Law or Code that the Federal Government Recognizes. They hid all that behind the term “National”.
A National is a state citizen, and a member of the People who is under the original Constitution Protections against the Federal Government which are also adopted by the several states.
If you want to research this in more detail, you can find more proof and sources in the Citizenship Handbook in the Lesson Materials.
Also, we’d like to thank Devon for his contribution of his Citizenship Handbook.
