Three Theories of CitizenshipIn this Part, I identify three conceptions of U.S. citizenship that help to evaluate the propriety of citizenship-based taxation. Some commentators describe citizenship in terms different from those identified in these three models. 65 Whatever the value of these alternative conceptions of citizenship in other contexts, for the issue explored in this Article - the propriety of taxing on the basis of citizenship - these three models are the useful approaches to citizenship and the benefits defense of citizenship based taxation.The Minimalist ModelFor Professor Bickel, a minimalist conception of U.S. citizenship both describes the reality of U.S. law and embodies a normatively desirable state of affairs: "Happily," Professor Bickel wrote, "the concept of citizenship [*1304] plays only the most minimal role in the American constitutional scheme." 66 Prior to the adoption of the post-Civil War Amendments, the U.S. Constitution "contained no definition of citizenship and precious few references to the concept altogether." 67 Citing the First and Second Amendments, Professor Bickel noted that "the Bill of Rights throughout defines rights of people, not of citizens." 68 Thus, "the original Constitution presented the edifying picture of a government that bestowed rights on people and persons, and held itself out as bound by certain standards of conduct in its relations with people and persons, not with some legal construct called citizen." 69