Strangers to the Constitution: Immigrants, Borders, and Fundamental Law

Gerald L. Neuman

Published by Princeton University Press 1996

Strangers to the Constitution

Immigrants, Borders, and Fundamental Law

Gerald L. Neuman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400821952

Overview
Contents

About this book

Gerald Neuman discusses in historical and contemporary terms the repeated efforts of U.S. insiders to claim the Constitution as their exclusive property and to deny constitutional rights to aliens and immigrants--and even citizens if they are outside the nation's borders. Tracing such efforts from the debates over the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 to present-day controversies about illegal aliens and their children, the author argues that no human being subject to the governance of the United States should be a "stranger to the Constitution."

Thus, whenever the government asserts its power to impose obligations on individuals, it brings them within the constitutional system and should afford them constitutional rights. In Neuman's view, this mutuality of obligation is the most persuasive approach to extending constitutional rights extraterritorially to all U.S. citizens and to those aliens on whom the United States seeks to impose legal responsibilities. Examining both mutuality and more flexible theories, Neuman defends some constitutional constraints on immigration and deportation policies and argues that the political rights of aliens need not exclude suffrage. Finally, in regard to whether children born in the United States to illegally present alien parents should be U.S. citizens, he concludes that the Constitution's traditional shield against the emergence of a hereditary caste of "illegals" should be vigilantly preserved.

Author / Editor information

Gerald L. Neuman is Professor of Law at Columbia University.

Reviews

[An] excellent book....By arguing one topic [Neuman] gives an excellent account of the American system as a whole.---George Stearn, The Literary Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Chapter One. WHOSE CONSTITUTION? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE: THE PAST
Chapter Two. THE OPEN BORDERS MYTH AND THE LOST CENTURY OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter Three. CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS ON IMMIGRATION REGULATION IN THE FIRST CENTURY: FEDERALISM OBJECTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
Chapter Four. THE RIGHTS OF ALIEN FRIENDS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Chapter Five. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE OF THE CONSTITUTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
PART TWO: THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE
Chapter Six. RIGHTS BEYOND OUR BORDERS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Chapter Seven. CROSSING THE BORDER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Chapter Eight. LIMITS OF THE POLITY: POLITICAL RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Chapter Nine. LIMITS OF THE NATION: BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Chapter Ten. CONCLUSION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277

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