SECTION 260: The income arising from the sixteenth section trust fund, the surplus revenue fund, until it is called for by the United States government, and the funds enumerated in sections 257 and 258 of this Constitution, together with a special annual tax of thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in this state, which the legislature shall levy, shall be applied to the support and maintenance of the public schools, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to increase the public school fund from time to time as the necessity therefor and the condition of the treasury and the resources of the state may justify; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to authorize the legislature to levy in any one year a greater rate of state taxation for all purposes, including schools, than sixty-five cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property; and provided further, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the legislature from first providing for the payment of the bonded indebtedness of the state and interest thereon out of all the revenue of the state.

The above is an example of the kind of literacy tests that were used in the South to suppress the franchise of black citizens. At the polls, African-American citizens were asked to read this mess aloud, and the slightest slip was used to disqualify them. (Say "bonded indebtedness three times fast.) White voters were asked to read four-word clauses.

Stephen Miller is a bureaucratic slugworm. Win McNamee Getty Images

There was more than a little reason to go spelunking through this nasty bit of American history this week when the Washington Post ran with a story describing how Stephen Miller, the most loathsome White House domestic policy adviser since John Ehrlichman, planned to turn the migrant experience into even more of an open-air torture chamber. There were proposals for mass arrests and massive sweeps through major cities. (A. Mitchell Palmer, come on down!) And that struck even an apparatchik automaton like Kirstjen Nielsen as excessive.

“The proposal was nowhere near ready for prime time,” the official said, which is why DHS senior leaders blocked the White House. “They wanted 10 cities, thousands of targets.”

(You know, not long ago, the House Oversight Committee had a brilliant idea. They would withhold the salaries of administration officials who ignored congressional subpoenas. I think they could withhold Miller's on the grounds of his being a bureaucratic slugworm and probably break new ground in bipartisan cooperation.)

Migrants gather in a shelter in El Paso, Texas. The Trump administration has floated subjecting these people to modern-day literacy tests. Mario Tama Getty Images

And, suddenly, the president* had a change of heart. Well, no. He found a new bouquet of bad ideas that don't look quite as good in a brownshirt, and that's where the passage from the Alabama constitution comes in. Again, from the Post:

Another criterion, aides said, would be “patriotic assimilation,” a concept that would favor immigrants who had shown an active interest in incorporating the nation’s culture and way of life. One administration official offered an example in which green-card applicants would be required to pass an exam based on a reading of George Washington’s farewell address or Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

One of the shebeen's basic principles of executive power is that the president* should not be empowered to give anyone a test that he himself cannot pass. There is absolutely no way the president* knows any more about Jefferson's letter to the Baptists than he knows about the Gnostic texts of Nag Hammadi, and he probably thinks Washington's Farewell Address was at 666 Fifth Avenue.

But some poor shoeless bastard is supposed to figure out what "adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties," means in relation to the Hobby Lobby decision. Patterns of authoritarianism never change. They just get smarter.

Update (3:47 p.m.): The president* presented his plan on Thursday afternoon, and it was immediately and unanimously acclaimed as really most sincerely dead on arrival and, yes, it contained the aforementioned pop quiz. From CNN:



It is short of concrete details and omits discussion of the DACA program, which Democrats have repeatedly said they want resolved. Though Republicans have expressed interest in pursuing a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, a senior administration official said the White House is not addressing the topic because it "is still divisive with Republicans."

Officials said the principles of Kushner's proposal, if implemented, would shift away from a majority of individuals coming into the US based on family ties to having a majority coming in based on skill and employment. The total number of immigrants admitted into the United States, the officials said, would remain the same.

The plan would also implement a point-based system for visas, which would take into account age, English proficiency, offers of employment and educational/vocational certifications. The plan would also create a new visa which would permit some foreign students to obtain a visa which allows them to immediately transition into the American workforce, instead of having them obtain a worker visa following graduation.



You first, Mr. President*.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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