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Archiver > NJESSEX > 2004-12 > 1102962260


From: "Michael C. Smith" <>
Subject: Congressional Bill - S.2845
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:24:20 -0800 (PST)


In defense of the legitimacy of this issue:

First - this board is not clogged up - in fact it is
less active than many other lists and the information
at issue is vital (no pun intended) to genealogical
research.

Second - the dismissive and nasty tone implied in one
poster's response to the posting of info and concerns
about HR10-S.2845 is not in keeping with the free
exchange of information encouraged on these boards.

Third - although I have not researched the full
proposed statute, the applicable background caselaw
and statutes regarding the retention or non-retention
of citizenship rights/privileges at death, or the
circumstances in which such concerns might arise
-(and don't have the time to do so, although, the
deceased do not automatically lose "rights" pertaining
to coitizenship since the Estates of the deceased have
continuing legal status and routinely engage in
litigation and other legal matters) - as a legal
practitioner I will say that on a cursory review of
the face of this section of the bill there is nothing
addressing or answering the issue of whether the
restrictions contained in the bill are intended to
apply only to the living or the dead as well.

However, given that the bill is part of an
anti-terrorism bill and apparently intended to prevent
people/terrorists from assuming the identities of the
deceased as well as the living, I would highly suspect
that the bill would be construed as intended to apply
to the birth certificates of ALL people born here in
the United States (i.e. citizens) the information
concerning which is currently subject to differing
state standards applied for the release of such
information.

The point of all of this is that there is clearly a
need to be wary of this bill as it will affect the
ability to find out very useful genealogical
information - in some cases possibly the only source
of information such as the maiden name of an
ancestor's mother. This is a legitimate topic and
concern for this board.



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