Citizen of Two Governments
As stated by Chief Justice Waite in United States v. Cruikshank et al. (92 U.S. 542)(1875):
..."We have in our political system a government of the United States and a government of each of the several States. Each one of these governments is distinct from the others, and each has citizens of its own who owe it allegiance, and whose rights, within its jurisdiction, it must protect. The same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a citizen of a State, but his rights of citizenship under one of these governments will be different from those he has under the other. Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 74."
Justice Fuller in Boyd v. State of Nebraska,143 U.S. 135 (1892) stated:
"The constitution provides that no person shall be a representative who has not been 'seven years a citizen of the United States,' (article 1 , 2, par. 2;) that no person shall be a senator who has not been 'nine years a citizen of the United States,' (article 1, 3, par. 3;) that no person shall be elighihle to the office of person shall be eligible to the office of natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution,' (article 2, 1, par. 4;) and that 'the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states,' (article 4, 2, par. 1;) and congress is empowered 'to establish an uniform rule of naturalization,' (article 1, 8, par. 4.) But prior to the adoption of the fourteenth amendment there was no definition of citizenship of the United States in the instrument..."
"The fourteenth amendment reads: '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 immunites 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.'
"In The Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, it was held by this court that the first clause of the fourteenth article was primarily intended to confer citizenship on the negro race, and, secondly, to give definitions of citizenship of the United States and citizenship of the states; and it recognized the distinction between citizenship of a state and citizenship of the United States by those definitions; that the privileges and immunites of citizens of the states embrace generally those fundamental civil rights for the security and establishment of which organized society was instituted, and which remain, with certain exceptions, mentioned in the federal constitution, under the care of the state governments, while the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States are those which arise out of the nature and essential character of the national government, the provisions of its constitution, or its laws and treaties made in pursuance thereof; and that it is the latter which are placed under the protection of congress by the second clause of the fourteenth amendment.
"In Gassies v. Ballon, 6 Pet. 761, 762, Mr. Chief Justice MARSHALL declared that 'a citizen of the United States, residing in any state of the Union, is a citizen of that state;' and the fourteenth amendment embodies that view."
In the recently released Supreme Court decision in Printz v. United States and Mack v. United States, (June 27, 1997), Judge Scalia for the Court stated:
"The Framers explicitly chose a Constitution that confers upon Congress the power to regulate individuals, not States. Id., at 166. The great innovation of this design was that our citizens would have two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other - a legal system unprecedented in form and design, establishing two orders of government, each with its own direct relationship, its own privity, its own set of mutual rights and obligations to the people who sustain it and are governed by it. U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U. S. 779, 838 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring). The Constitution thus contemplates that a State's government will represent and remain accountable to its own citizens. See New York, supra, at 168–169; United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 576–577 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring). Cf. Edgar v. MITE, Corp., 457 U. S. 624, 644 (1982) (the State has no legitimate interest in protecting nonresident[s]). As Madison expressed it: '[T]he local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere.' "The Federalist" No. 39, at 245.
"This separation of the two spheres is one of the Constitution's structural protections of liberty. Just as the separation and independence of the coordinate branches of the Federal Government serve to prevent the accumulation of excessive power in any one branch, a healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government will reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front. Gregory, supra, at 458. To quote Madison once again:
'In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.' The Federalist No. 51, at 323. See also The Federalist No. 28, at 180–181 (A. Hamilton)."
