14th Amendment Legislation Stalls In Arizona State Senate

Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce's plan to push an augmentation of the 14th Amendment through the  state legislature has hit a big snag this week.

The legislation, which would deny the children of immigrants birthright citizenship, did not have enough votes to pass out of the State Senate Judiciary.

Alia Beard Rau of the Arizona Republic has the full story here:

The Senate versions of Arizona's birthright-citizenship bills hit a wall Monday afternoon. After three hours of testimony, a key sponsor held the measures to avoid a vote of his own Senate Judiciary Committee. Based on questioning from committee members, the bills didn't appear to have enough support to move forward.

Just because the legislation does not have enough votes to pass in the Judiciary Committee, does not mean that the legislation is dead:

Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, could bring the bills back to the committee later, or they could be referred to a committee that may be more receptive. "It's going to come back," said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, who opposes the package. "Nothing's dead until sine die." The Legislature adjourns when it is sine die, which means its work is done.

One thing was very clear, the practicality of this legislation has been called into question. Especially once it became clear that the legislation was more about the meaning of the 14th Amendment then it was about actually doing anything productive or constructive on immigration reform:

For two hours, the audience got a lesson in constitutional history and a debate over U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The bill's sponsors want to push the high court to reconsider how the 14th Amendment is interpreted and stop the United States from granting citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. The 14th Amendment states that "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 real question here is if this eventually passes the State legislature, can Arizona afford a new round of costly legal battles over a law that is designed to create a conversation about the crafting of the 14th Amendment.