Political rights of federal citizens are franchises, held as privileges


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Posted by Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S. on September 18, 1998 at 23:41:21:

Murphy v. Ramsey, as quoted in "The Federal Zone":

The people of the United States***, as sovereign owners of
the national territories, have supreme power over them and
their inhabitants. ... The personal and civil rights of the
inhabitants of the territories are secured to them, as to
other citizens, by the principles of constitutional
liberty, which restrain all the agencies of government,
state and national; their political rights are franchises
which they hold as privileges in the legislative discretion
of the congress of the United States**. This doctrine was
fully and forcibly declared by the chief justice,
delivering the opinion of the court in National Bank v.
County of Yankton, 101 U.S. 129.

[Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15 (1885)]
[italics in original, emphasis added]


Paul Mitchell comments:

Here is the crucial sentence, in case you missed it:

"Their political rights are franchises which they hold
as privileges in the legislative discretion of the
Congress of the United States."

Federal citizenship, therefore, is a privilege,
not a Right.

Think of it as a McDonald's hamburger franchise.
If you want to benefit from that franchise,
you must pay your dues to the owner of the
franchise -- the Congress!

/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S.



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