swept away by the
XIV. Amendment, which abolishes the theory of different grades of
citizenship, or different grades of rights and privileges, and
declares all persons born in the country or naturalized in it to
be citizens, in the broadest and fullest sense of the term,
leaving no room for cavil, and guaranteeing to all citizens the
rights and privileges of citizens of the republic. We think we
are justified in saying that the weight of authority sustains us
in the view we take of this question. But considering the nature
of it, it is a question depending much for its solution upon a
consideration of the government under which citizenship is
claimed. Citizenship in Turkey or Russia is essentially different
in its rights and privileges from citizenship in the United
States. In the former, citizenship means no more than the right
to the protection of his absolute rights, and the "citizen" is a
subject; nothing more. Here, in the language of Chief Justice
Jay, there are no subjects. All, native-born and naturalized, are
citizens of the highest class; here all citizens are sovereigns,
each citizen bearing a portion of the supreme sovereignty, and
therefore it must necessarily be that the right to a voice in the
Government is the right and privilege of a citizen as such, and
that which is undefined in the Constitution is undefined because
it is self-evident.

Could a State disfranchise and deprive of the right to a vote all
citizens who have red hair; or all citizens under six feet in
height? All will consent that the States could not make such
arbitrary distinctions the ground for denial of political
privileges; that it would be a violation of the first article of
the XIV. Amendment; that it would be abridging the privileges of
citizens. And yet the denial of the elective franchise to
citizens on account of sex is equally as arbitrary as the
distinction on account of stature, or color of hair, or any other
physical distinction. These privileges of the citizen exist
independent of the Constitution. They are not derived from the
Constitution or the laws, but are the means of asserting and
protecting rights that existed before any civil governments were
formed--the right of life, liberty and property. Says Paine, in
his Dissertation upon the