March 14, 2001
Back in the olden days of the Cold War, a favorite sport of the
liberals was to accuse conservatives of seeing imaginary spies and
traitors under the bed. Who could have predicted that a real spy named
Robert Hanssen and a traitor named Marc Rich would be dominating big-
media headlines in 2001?
Now everyone knows there really are persons who betray America.
They aren't under the bed; they are in the FBI and the CIA, and their
lawyers and female advocates enjoy easy access to the White House.
Hanssen sold his loyalty to America for several hundred thousand
dollars and some diamonds. Rich made billions of dollars trading with
our country's enemies.
Whatever happened to the loyalty to America that we expect of our
citizens? It's time for a renewed emphasis on patriotism and for
teaching schoolchildren how fortunate they are to be citizens of the
United States rather than encouraging some amorphous sort of "global
This is no time to tolerate the attempt by some liberal attorneys
and activists to water down the oath that immigrants take in order to
become naturalized Americans. This oath has been required for more
than 200 years.
"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
law; . . . so help me God."
The oath is an excellent statement of what loyalty to America
means: both swearing allegiance to the United States and renouncing
all allegiance to foreign countries. Changing the oath would be a bad
mistake because it would change both the legal and symbolic
significance of American citizenship.
Retaining any allegiance to a foreign state is inconsistent with
our nation's moral and philosophical foundations. Taking the oath of
citizenship means pledging allegiance to the American constitutional
It is unfortunate, even dangerous, that some activists are now
working to terminate the requirement that new citizens renounce all
prior national allegiances and also to end the English language
requirement for citizenship. These activists seek to make citizenship
tests easier or even eliminate them, treat non-citizens as members of
"victim" groups entitled to have our laws translated into foreign
languages, and even encourage aliens to vote in U.S. elections.
These activists promote dual citizenship, a concept that is
destructive to the idea of "we the people" as expressed in the United
States Constitution. A shared allegiance is a treacherous idea that
figured prominently in the psyche of many spies who tried to
rationalize giving U.S military and scientific secrets to the enemy.
As a condition of naturalization in the United States, current law
requires the ability to read, write and speak simple words in ordinary
usage in the English language. Examples are: "America is the land of
freedom. I want to become an American so I can vote. Many people come
to America for freedom."
The U.S. Constitution is written in English, and our Rule of Law,
including all statutes and judicial decisions, is based on more than
200 years of development of an enormous body of law in one language.
The English language is the most important tie that binds us together
as a nation.
Many constitutional rights are built on the premise that the
public understands one common language. The right to a public trial
requires that the public understand the language spoken at the trial,
and the right to a reasoned judicial decision assumes that the decision
is written in a language that the litigants understand.
The right to petition the government assumes that the government
and the public speak a common language. The right to see a warrant
prior to allowing a search and seizure assumes that the recipient can
understand the language of the agent presenting the warrant.
Major constitutional terms such as "due process of law," "common
law," and "cruel and unusual punishments" lack identical counterparts
in other languages. Even familiar phrases such as "the American dream"
encounter thorny problems of translation into other languages.
"Government of the people, by the people, and for the people"
assumes that the people have the power to require that the government
speak to us in a common language. The oath of citizenship and the
English language requirement are essential components of promoting
allegiance to America and keeping us e pluribus unum.