<i>How does a nation built upon the concept of natural rights in turn deny non-Americans those same innate rights?</i><p>Looking back, as a history buff, I think the problem is that each generation felt that it was a special snowflake, so the rules didn&#x27;t apply to them.<p>Early on we had terrible travesties -- the Alien and Sedition Act, for instance. But people came to their senses and it was repealed.<p>Over time, however, as each generation thought it was facing something nobody could have planned for, the boundaries got pushed.<p>Fast-forward 240 years, and what you have is the natural result of systemic drift. With each travesty and reversal, maybe you lose 1% over a decade. Add that up over 24 decades and its amazing anything is left at all.<p>Technically, both the Supreme court and the Senate are charged with preventing this from happening. But the Senate was gutted and turned into another House of Representatives when they went to direct elections, so the only thing those guys are good for now is pandering to the TV cameras. The courts tend to give wonderful speeches on liberty and such -- but usually end up keeping things much as they are. (They have nibbled a bit around the edges, but in general they&#x27;ve been more part of the problem than part of the solution. Part of the reason for this is the gradual and incremental nature of the drift.)<p>That&#x27;s what&#x27;s happened internally, with a huge set of checks and balances in place. Externally? It never had a chance.