Good morning, it’s one day away from Friday. Happy Thursday!
Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship – a definitive rejection of the Trump administration’s attempt to end the right of children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents to become American citizens – it seems fitting to note that the constitutional amendment underpinning that right was ratified on this day in 1868.
(A quick aside for a news break: The president has said he intends to ask the Supreme Court to re-hear the birthright citizenship case, though the chances of the justices taking him up on that are reportedly low).
The 14th Amendment actually contains five distinct sections, each of which was intended to address one of a series of issues that cropped up in the wake of the Civil War. The Citizenship Clause says the following:
“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.“
Seems pretty cut and dried to me.
The rest of the 14th Amendment’s clauses and sections address due process; equal protection (the foundation of any number of landmark Supreme Court decisions on racial, gender, and sexual equality, including Brown v. Board of Education); privileges and/or immunities (protecting certain fundamental rights from being abridged by state laws); and an insurrectionist ban (this became the subjection of significant legal challenges following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol).
Facing the challenge of incorporating formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, Congress drafted the 14th Amendment to ensure them – the men, anyway – basic civil and legal rights. Confederate states were not at all thrilled about this, but they were forced to ratify the amendment if they wanted to regain representation in Washington.
The Naturalization Clause, specifically, overturned the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which stated that enslaved people were not, in fact, U.S. citizens after a slave named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom in St. Louis. The couple argued that their slavery had been mooted by the fact that they had lived for periods of time in the Free Territory of Wisconsin with their enslaver, an Army surgeon, at Fort Snelling.
The whole case became very protracted and took 11 years to play out as it worked its laborious way through the Missouri court system before making it to the high court.
The story of the 14th Amendment is very complex – in fact, it almost didn’t mention citizenship at all. If you really want to go deep on the history, click here, here, or here. Suffice it to say, that this amendment is widely viewed by legal scholars as one of the most complicated and, as a result, heavily litigated, amendments in the entire Constitution. It is on its own a sort of “mini-Constitution”.
We have returned to the regularly scheduled programming of summer weather, with a spate of seasonably appropriate, more or less sunny and warm days stretching out into the foreseeable future. Today will be partly cloudy with highs flirting with 90 degrees.
Now that’s more like it. Pool/lake/beach days here we come!
In the headlines…
Graham Platner announced yesterday that he’s ending his Senate campaign, capping a chaotic few days of uncertainty and Democratic infighting and leaving the party without a candidate in the vitally important Maine race this fall.
Platner called the allegations of sexual assault that have been lodged against him “all false” in the 11-minute, 15-second video posted on social media last night, adding, “it’s not real,” before announcing he would file paperwork to withdraw from the race.
Before Platner dropped out, Trump weighed in on the race, questioning whether people should believe the sexual assault allegations against the Democrat. “A lot of people say big falsehoods,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Dan Kleban, a Freeport, ME, brewery owner, threw his hat in the ring to replace Platner, saying Mainers have “had enough meddling from Washington establishment insiders and New York City consultants trying to dictate who represents us.”
Maine State Representative Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, says Platner is encouraging her to try and take his place on the ballot and run against Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Several replacements have expressed interest in running, but choosing a new candidate will be politically thorny, with moderates and progressives jockeying for influence. Democrats will also be wary about vetting after their tumultuous experience with Platner.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said he didn’t consider the recent wave of anti-establishment victories “an overall critique of the party.”
The writer E. Jean Carroll can collect $5.8 million held in escrow since a jury found that President Trump sexually abused and defamed her, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Trump’s lawyers immediately asked a court to block the payment while they appeal.
President Trump made good on his promise to hit Iran “hard” for a second straight night before warning attacks “will get much worse” if Tehran continues to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States and Iran traded fresh strikes early this morning and accused each other of violating the terms of their tenuous deal, hours after President Trump said he thought the cease-fire was over.
FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino is being referred to Olympic ethics investigators for a possible breach of political neutrality, a human rights group said Wednesday, after Trump helped block a World Cup player’s ban.
A federal judge in Manhattan has denied prediction market company Kalshi’s request for a preliminary injunction against the New York State Gaming Commission, a move that opens the way for state AG Letitia James to pursue legal action against the company.
Kalshi has appealed the judge’s denial. For the moment, Kalshi can continue operating in New York as the case proceeds. A representative for Kalshi did not respond to a request for comment.
Thousands of industrial facilities which create pollution linked to negative health outcomes continue operating with outdated or expired air-quality permits. And it’s happening three years after a state comptroller report exposed the regulatory breakdown.
Calls for the New York state Senate Judiciary Committee chair, state Sen. Luis Sepulveda, to step down are getting louder after new court records revealed that he had reported a judge on one of his housing cases to court administration.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has released a new ad featuring an AI-generated Gov. Kathy Hochul being “truthful” about what her reelection would look like, going after his rival on everything from affordability and crime to illegal immigration.
Hochul announced that she signed an executive order mandating a review of state regulations and fines to ensure that the state government isn’t wasting taxpayers’ “time and money.”
Blakeman is accusing Hochul of religious bigotry for enforcing a trans rights law she approved that forces Catholic nuns running a hospice program to choose between their beliefs or caring for indigent, terminally ill patients.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Hochul unveiled a new plan aimed at making New York City buses faster, more reliable and more accessible, a plan that aims to accomplish the “fast” part of the mayor’s campaign promise of “fast and free” buses.
Mamdani’s big plan to speed up buses relies on him not repeating the mistakes of his predecessors who talked an eerily similarly big game … and failed dramatically, spectacularly and most of all, politically.
Temporary supports have been installed inside the Midtown Manhattan office building that was showing signs of collapse, Mamdani said yesterday, and there has been no additional shifting since the structural damage was discovered a day earlier.
While city officials continue to investigate the former Pfizer corporate HQ’s risk of collapse, Laborers Local 79 started sounding the alarm three years ago about the safety record of one of the building’s demolition subcontractors: Northeast Service Interiors LLC.
Hundreds of people remained under evacuation orders yesterday more than 24 hours after they were forced to flee over fears a Midtown high-rise would collapse — including hotel guests completely caught off guard.
Before columns buckled inside a Midtown Manhattan office tower, a private firm conducted several inspections of major structural alterations being done at the site — and apparently signed off on at least some of them, records and interviews show.
Mamdani said that emergency construction crews have been able to temporarily stabilize the interior of the building that was in danger of partially collapsing, but traffic and pedestrian restrictions remain.
A day after Gotham FC announced its move to Queens in 2028, Mamdani has partnered with the NWSL club to offer a limited supply of $15 tickets for next week’s Queens Classic against the Washington Spirit at Citi Field.
Mamdani caught some Italian heat after releasing a map of the Big Apple’s ethnic enclaves that includes places like Little Palestine — but ignores historic Little Italy and other notable Irish and Jewish immigrant nabes.
Mamdani-backed Congressional candidate Darializa Avila-Chevalier wrote an academic paper concluding that US border enforcement is rooted in “anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.”
Leaders at some of the largest companies and professional service firms remain firmly committed to New York, the latest data on the office market shows. The mayor has taken note.
Council Speaker Julie Menin is demanding the Mamdani administration order UES building owners to disinfect their cooling towers to prevent a further Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has already infected at least 36 people across two Manhattan nabes.
Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, announced the appointment of a new deputy, James M. McDonald, who would oversee the prosecutor’s office while Clayton prepares for his confirmation process to be Trump’s director of national intelligence.
New York City’s Department of Transportation is looking for a “creative” engineer to run one of the country’s most challenging infrastructure projects: fixing the decrepit triple cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
A NYCHA plumber who’s one of New York City’s highest-paid employees is in hot water after claiming he worked nearly 2,600 hours of overtime.
The public housing employee made more than $465,000 in a year with overtime, while apparently running two private plumbing businesses at the same time. The city is investigating.
The city announced a $1.7 million settlement with Extra Space, a storage company, resolving a three-year investigation and lawsuit. Officials said $1 million will be going back to customers through a restitution fund. The remaining $700,000 covers civil penalties.
Democrat Cait Conley holds a 6-percentage-point lead over two-term Republican Rep. Michael Lawler in the race for a hotly contested New York swing district, according to a poll released Wednesday by House Democrats.
Western New York Republican lawmakers and candidates are pointing to New York state’s bail reform laws amid a recent uptick in violence across the region after a Fourth of July weekend in which 11 people were shot in six separate shootings.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy announced a new initiative to help combat the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The Bethlehem Town Board announced Tuesday it has paused proposed zoning changes that were years in the making after hundreds of residents expressed overwhelming opposition to the plan.
The 12-story, 207,000-square-foot building at 80 State St., one of the largest office towers in downtown Albany, faces foreclosure after the borrower defaulted after missing payments in May and June. A total of $34.6 million was owed as of late June.
The City of Rensselaer is preparing to sue the city school district over accusations that the district has not paid its share of a city-provided school resource officer’s salary for almost a decade.
A Schenectady man who held a restaurant employee at knifepoint and stole his cigarettes during a theft spree will spend nearly a decade in prison.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
