On August 11, the federal government filed this brief in Tuaua v U.S.A., in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. The issue is whether the Constitution requires that persons born in U.S. possessions be considered citizens. Persons born in American Samoa are considered U.S. nationals, not citizens. The government interprets the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that only individuals born in a state are constitutionally entitled to be considered U.S. citizens.

The Fourteenth Amendment says, “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.” The plaintiffs argue that persons born in American Samoa are citizens. The federal government disagrees. By statute, Congress has said that persons born in all U.S. possessions except American Samoa are citizens, but Congress has never taken that step for American Samoa.

Under the federal government’s theory, even persons born in the District of Columbia aren’t constitutionally required to be recognized as citizens.

The plaintiffs’ reply brief is due September 8.

Here is a list of Iowa candidates for federal and state office. The Libertarian Party and the New Independent Party of Iowa have candidates on the ballot for most of the statewide offices, and the Libertarian Party also has six legislative candidates. The Green Party has one legislative candidate.

The New Independent Party of Iowa is a new party, with a platform somewhat similar to the Reform Party’s platform. Here is the New Independent Party of Iowa’s web page. Thanks to Nathan Hetzel for the links.

Iowa has no ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. A group only attains qualified status after it has polled 2% for President or Governor. The Green Party had qualified party status 2000-2002, and the Reform Party had it 1996-1998. Otherwise Iowa hasn’t had any ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democrats and Republicans, during the last 40 years.

UPDATE: see this commentary by John Deeth, on the New Independent Party of Iowa.

On August 12, the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office determined that the Libertarian Party U.S. Senate petition in Kentucky has enough valid signatures. This is the first time any unqualified party has completed a U.S. Senate petition in Kentucky since 1978, when the American Party petitioned for U.S. Senate.

The Reform Party had a U.S. Senate nominee in 1998, another midterm year, but the Reform Party didn’t need to complete a petition for that race, because it had polled over 2% of the vote for President in 1996, so was automatically on the ballot for all partisan office in 1998, 1999 and 2000.