September 24, 2015 10:37 AM

Smith: Yogi Berra, Birthright Citizen

From the Left: Quorum Report’s liberal columnist Glenn W. Smith argues that even Yogi Berra was a birthright U.S. citizen and a great American, and that anti-14th amendment extremists, including Sen. Ted Cruz, sound like yesteryear's xenophobes.

Yogi Berra was one of the most colorful and accomplished Americans of all time on any field of play, and he was apparently a birthright U.S. citizen.

Yogi was born in 1925 and 1930 U.S. Census records show that Yogi’s father, Pietro, who arrived in the U.S. from northern Italy in 1909, still declared as an alien five years after Yogi was born. So did his mother, Pauline. It didn’t matter to Yogi, of course. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed him citizenship.

Berra died Tuesday, and here’s the Sports Illustrated headline on its obituary: “Remembering the great American life of Yankees Legend Yogi Berra.” Yogi’s certainly was a great American life. Emphasis on “American.” And it was a life made possible by the 14th Amendment.

That is the amendment that Sen. Ted Cruz and a good number of his fellow travelers in the Republican presidential primary would like to repeal.

Yogi would probably take it in stride. “If I couldn’t come to the ballpark, how are they going to stop me,” he’d say.

The complete column from Glenn W. Smith is in the R&D Department.

By Glenn W. Smith