



During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) claimed that Americans are not citizens of the United States, but rather are citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that they should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government.

However, the 14th Amendment of the constitution lays out very plainly that all people born in the United States are citizens of the United States:

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.



(Source: ThinkProgress.org)