I noted in the above two articles that we shouldn’t need more laws to underline what is either Constitutional precept or else self-evident. Here’s the third example:
No law currently prevents Congress members from having dual citizenship
Act for America is pressuring Congress to pass legislation to ban people with foreign citizenship from serving in the House and Senate. The Virginia-based national security advocacy group said the lack of a prohibition on Congress members with dual citizenship was a “dangerous loophole.”
“This bill should never have been necessary,” Act for America said. “From the founding of this republic, the expectation was crystal clear: those entrusted with making laws for the United States must owe their complete and undivided loyalty to America.”
The Constitution sets qualifications for service in Congress, which are a minimum age (25 years old for the House and 30 years old for the Senate), a period of U.S. citizenship (7 years for the House and 9 years for the Senate) and residency in the state represented. However, it does not restrict foreign citizenship.
Actually, from my own memory of the naturalization process, one of the steps towards becoming a U..S. citizen is formally renouncing under oath one’s previous citizenship. One would think, therefore, that the issue should be moot, and not require a law which underlines the regulation, but it appears that one would be wrong.
And as much as I dislike the appearance of yet another fucking law to join the raft of laws already in situ, I would truly support legislation which would require that all Congress members be required to surrender their non-U.S. passports in public — i.e. as part of their swearing-in ceremony — with failure to do so resulting in immediate disqualification and a by-election to bring someone else into office.
Hell, I think I’d support that such a law be applied to any level of government, federal, state or local. (Congressional staffers and similar remora also come to mind, by the way.)
Let’s have our republic run by actual Americans, and not something-Americans.
I should point out that no freshly-minted U.S. citizen ever jettisoned their native passport with the alacrity that I did. I couldn’t wait to get rid of the fucking thing, just as I heartily tossed my (cut-up) Illinois Firearms Owner ID (FOID) card into the Mississippi River on my final trip from Chicago to Texas.
