New York City is likely to permit 800,000 non-citizens to vote in local elections. These individuals have permanent legal resident status and pay taxes. Few Republicans would approve of this. An op-ed carried by Fox claims that it shows the depravity and evil of the Democratic Party, and states that immigrants who have citizen status with “communist” China will be voting.
I would note that the 14th Amendment’s protections of due process and equal protection extends beyond citizens and protects “persons” regardless of citizen status. On Facebook, Mark Tushnet helpfully reports that Jamie Raskin's tenure article at American University was about this issue. (See
- Jamin Raskin, Legal Aliens, Local Citizens: The Historical, Constitutional and Theoretical Meanings of Alien Suffrage, U. Pa. L. Rev. (Apr. 1993).
I am reminded of an article by Ken Karst who argued in a Foreword to the Harvard Law Review for the principle of “equal citizenship” that generous protections should be found in the Amendment for citizens and for non-citizens including the clause that protects the privileges and immunities of citizenship. It was influential, but the courts have not lived up to his generous approach. And, of course, the current Court is intent on cutting back on many of the Amendment’s protections.
In my first year of teaching, I would carry many bound volumes home with articles discussing what I needed for the next day’s class session. Virtually every time the most helpful article was written by the guy down the hall – a friend and mentor – Ken Karst.
Comments