We started off on Monday, not sure we could do another week of this, and here we are, Thursday already. That just means it’s almost time to get to Friday! And then? Friday politics! And weekend birb politics!

Today is a weird day in history as we go back to 1790 with the Naturalization Act of 1790, which you get the sense that we might be hearing about more of in the months to come, with a few cases. 

It was a law of the United States Congress that set the first uniform rules for the granting of United States citizenship by naturalization. The law limited naturalization to “free white person(s) … of good character”. This eliminated ambiguity on how to treat newcomers, given that free black people had been allowed citizenship at the state level in many states. In reading the Naturalization Act, the courts also associated whiteness with Christianity and Judaism, and thus sometimes excluded Muslim immigrants from citizenship by classifying them as Asians until the decision Ex Parte Mohriez recognized citizenship for a Saudi Muslim man in 1944.

Of course, “Congress modeled the act on the Plantation Act 1740 of the British Parliament (13 Geo. 2. c. 7) that was officially titled An Act for Naturalizing such foreign Protestants and others therein mentioned, as are settled or shall settle in any of His Majesty’s Colonies in America, and used its provisions concerning time, oath of allegiance, the process of swearing before a judge, etc.”

Suffice it to say, we’ve got some natural sin baked in that we’re still contending with. 

And no McSquirrelin’