quote:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

The Constitution requires the counting of all "free persons." The drafters could have said "citizens." The drafters certainly knew the difference. They made a distinction between "free persons" and persons who were not free (meaning slaves) but they did not make a distinction between citizens and persons who reside here who are not citizens. There is no rational argument that a non-status alien living within a state is not a "free person."

This right wing argument that the census is or should
be restricted to "citizens" is typical right wing hogwash. There is absolutely no basis whatsoever for it. The Constitution says what it says.

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Posted by Bard

Definitely NOT an admin

Member since Oct 2008

52037 posts

Posted on 6/12/19 at 3:06 pm to TBoy

quote:
Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution

Which has been amended by the 2nd section of the 14th Amendment as well as the 19th and 26th Amendments.

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Posted by AggieHank86

Texas

Member since Sep 2013

42941 posts

Posted on 6/12/19 at 3:09 pm to TBoy

quote:
The Constitution requires the counting of all "free persons." The drafters could have said "citizens." The drafters certainly knew the difference.

I have seen the argument that the drafters intent of the word “Citizen“ and the word “person“ to be synonyms. They are not used as synonyms anywhere in the entire document.

There are certainly places where the constitution is ambiguous. This just is not one of those places. Anyone confused on this issue should recuse himself from all further constitutional discussion.

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Posted by Weekend Warrior79

Member since Aug 2014

16645 posts

Posted on 6/12/19 at 3:14 pm to TBoy

quote:
three fifths of all other Persons

Could this also be reference to the number of immigrants that were not citizens at the time, but who are here legally. Considering the time it was written, and there was a vast number of people migrating to the US, they may not have thought of the exploited illegal immigration movement that has been going on for some time.

And, if we were to take snippets of the constitution and apply it to today's terms, that could get dangerous when you consider the fact that they did not consider segments of the population that did not pay taxes as equals to those that do pay taxes.

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Posted by Dale51

Member since Oct 2016

32378 posts

Posted on 6/12/19 at 6:22 pm to TBoy

quote:

The Constitution requires the counting of all "free persons." The drafters could have said "citizens.

Thats nice. I doubt that hoards of invasive, criminal aliens, who hate the country and the laws, invading the country, even entered their minds.
But maybe they did use that literal meaning to things??

Now do "Shall not be infringed".
What do you think they meant by that??

This post was edited on 6/12/19 at 6:42 pm

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Posted by Barstools