Renouncing US citizenship, while retaining state citizenship

Question: Is it possible for an individual to give up his US citizenship, while insisting that he is still a citizen of his particular state – for instance, [just to pick one] Illinois?

Why I ask the question: The Civil War settled one issue by disallowing the “right” of any state to secede from the union. However, can a state virtually secede if its citizens renounced their US citizenship while retaining their [Illinois] citizenship? By the way, this is no idle, theoretical question, as the following essay will demonstrate. At the end, I propose an interesting scenario for a work of fiction.

Some initial considerations

The US State Department has this to say on its website*:

QUOTE:

A person wishing to renounce his or her U.S. citizenship must voluntarily and with intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship:

1.     appear in person before a U.S. consular or diplomatic officer,

2.     in a foreign country (normally at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate); and

3.     sign an oath of renunciation.

Renunciations that do not meet the conditions described above have no legal effect…Americans cannot effectively renounce their citizenship by mail, through an agent, or while in the United States.

:UNQUOTE.

Note those last six words: “or while in the United States.” Now consider this sentence from the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution:

QUOTE:

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.

:UNQUOTE.

This sentence is interesting for two reasons:

·       The US Constitution is telling the states how state (as well as national) citizenship is defined. If states’ rights and state sovereignty are to have any meaning at all, a fundamental right of any state must be to define, applicable to those people living within its borders, what constitutes being a citizen of that state.

·       All US citizens are, by dictate of the 14^th Amendment, automatically dual-citizens.

Conclusion: The US State Department says no one may renounce his US citizenship unless he’s out of the country. However, doing so would prevent his re-entry to [Illinois], wherein he still retains citizenship. The US State Department does not even take this possibility under consideration.

Two Constitutions “consider” citizenship

Here I will cite the US as well as the State of Illinois constitutions – talk about waffling and ambiguity!

The US Constitution: This document uses the term “the people” several times. However, not until the 14^th Amendment is the concept of state citizenship addressed. For instance, notice (below) where it uses the term “inhabitant,” when the word “citizen” would have been more appropriate:

QUOTE:

[FROM] Article I, Section 2: “No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, by an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.”

[FROM] Article I, Section 3: “No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.”

:UNQUOTE.

State of Illinois Constitution: This document** doesn’t define “Illinois citizenship” and in fact speaks only of US citizenship in these two important areas:

QUOTE:

[FROM] Article III, Section 1: “Every United States citizen who has attained the age of 18…and who has been a permanent resident of this State for at least 30 days next preceding any election shall have the right to vote at such election.”

[FROM] Article IV, Section 2: “To be eligible to serve as a member of the General Assembly, a person must be a United States citizen, at least 21 years old, and for the two years preceding his election or appointment a resident of the district which he is to represent.”

:UNQUOTE.

An argument in support of selective renunciation

By “selective renunciation,” I mean: Renouncing US citizenship while retaining [e.g. Illinois] state citizenship, and being able to do so while remaining in one’s home state.

There are three sovereignties at issue here: That of the United States, that of each of the 50 states, and (last but certainly not least) that belonging to each individual. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution make it clear that each individual still retains a degree of personal sovereignty.

By what right has the sovereign United States to demand that a sovereign person must leave the sovereign state of Illinois to renounce (only) his US citizenship?

In fact, one has only to look for guidance at the Oath of US Citizenship (which, by the way, natural born US citizens don’t have to take):

QUOTE:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

:UNQUOTE [SOURCE: http://www.uscis.gov/].

Why can’t a citizen of Illinois, while remaining in Illinois, wishing to renounce [only] his US citizenship only be obliged to insert a legal notice in a newspaper taking an oath contrary to the Oath of US Citizenship? The contrary elements could include:

·       “I hereby declare…my allegiance only to the State of Illinois [which, by the way, doesn’t define what it means to be an Illinois citizen] and, most importantly, replace my former allegiance to the United States with my allegiance to Jesus Christ [of whom one may speak as a “foreign prince”].”

·       “I will support and defend only laws which are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ [or Buddha or “just laws,” if you prefer].”

·       “I specifically refuse to bear arms, perform noncombatant service, or work of national importance since all three are violations of the US Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude.”

·       “I will swear an oath replacing the last four words – ‘So help me God’ – with ‘So help me Buddha.’ [NOTE: “…you may provide to USCIC*** a written notice to request a modified Oath of Allegiance which refrains from reciting ‘so help me God’”. However, though one may “refrain from reciting ‘so help me God,’ one can’t substitute “so help me Buddha.”

A Basis for a Work of Fiction

Take the case of North Carolina, a state which once tried to secede. There is still considerable anti-union sentiment within its borders and, moreover, sentiment in favor of establishing a Christian republic. This would be a form of rebellion against the increasingly secular, anti-God, pro-materialistic general culture of the United States at large.

Though North Carolina as a state sovereignty was not allowed to secede from the Union, a virtual secession might yet be possible. If all, or a substantial majority of NC’s citizens renounced their US citizenship while keeping North Carolinian citizenship, things would start to get interesting indeed. Suppose these NC-citizen-only voters did not mark their ballots for US president or even for NC’s “representatives” in the US Congress. If only a small percentage of NC’s voting age residents marked their federal Congressional ballots, how “legitimate” could those ballots be?

Or if the non-US citizens of NC voted for Congressmen who swore not to vote in the House or Senate if elected, should these officials be considered Congressmen – even though elected by non-US citizens?

What about a “hostile takeover” of a State?

The US is a highly mobile society. Suppose it becomes more so in the future, at a time when a new philosophy takes root among the more economically advantaged. Suppose this group decides to leave their homes en masse in the various states and all of them move to Vermont (population 625,000) or Alaska (population 710,000) or to some equally small state. Given the low numbers of current inhabitants, this immigration wave could overwhelm the natives. This in turn could set up the virtual secession scenario I’ve been describing.

Would the citizens of such a state, those who specifically renounced their US citizenship, be made to pay federal income taxes (presumably obligatory of US citizens)? Maybe a deal could be struck, whereby such renunciates could be obliged to pay for military protection – but that’s all.

Final Thoughts

Frankly, I don’t consider myself to be a US citizen, since I owe my greatest allegiance (at least territorially speaking) to the world. I am a citizen of the world, caring about all and discriminating against none. I have several motives in presenting this essay:

·       Always, first and foremost: To make people think.

·       To underscore how unforgivably sloppy we’ve been with our lawmaking.

·       To add further argument against territorially-based sovereignties, claiming these to be the greatest enemy of world peace.

·       To support the idea of Cross-Sectional Representation, a governance model I’ve blogged on before (at this site) which seeks to eliminate the artifice of state/national sovereignties.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012

Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party

“Superman once fought for ‘truth, justice, and the American Way.' I’m far from being a Superman, but I can still fight - and that will always be for ‘truth and justice as a proper Way for Humanity.’”

REFERENCES:

  * US State Dept website: http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

  ** As of “this document”: I doubt any of the other state constitutions define what it means to be a citizen of its particular state.

*** USCIS – The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has a website at http://www.uscis.gov/ which contains this sentence.