Here's the deal...Read the Source.
Many legal analysts and scholars agree with this take-- and until the Supreme Court weighs in.. this is how the law is interpreted:
The Constitution requires that the president be a "natural born citizen," but does not define the term. That job is left to federal law, in 8 U.S. Code, Section 1401. All the law requires is that the mother be an American citizen who has lived in the U.S. for five years or more, at least two of those years after the age of 14. If the mother fits those criteria, the child is a U.S. citizen at birth, regardless of the father's nationality.
The brouhaha over President Obama's birth certificate -- has revealed a widespread ignorance of some of the basics of American citizenship. The Constitution, of course, requires that a president be a "natural born citizen," but the Founding Fathers did not define the term, and it appears few people know what it means.
The law lists several categories of people who are considered American citizens at birth. There are the people born inside the United States; no question there. There are the people who are born outside the United States to parents who are both citizens, provided one of them has lived in the U.S. for any period of time. There are the people who are born outside the United States to one parent who is a U.S. citizen and the other who is a U.S. national (that is, from an outlying possession of the U.S.), provided the citizen parent has lived in the United States or its possessions for at least one year prior to the birth of the child. And then there are the people who are born outside the United States to one parent who is a U.S. citizen and the other who is an alien, provided the citizen parent lived in the United States or its possessions for at least five years, two of them after the age of 14.
They're all natural born U.S. citizens.* That also includes people who are born in Puerto Rico and people who were born in states before they became states. Born in Hawaii in 1950, a decade before statehood? You're a natural born U.S. citizen.
That is how legal experts interpret the "natural born" requirement.. and how you get that status is actually pretty open. Until the Supreme Court weighs in on this issue (and there are no plans that we know of that that will happen)... -- to your emails... Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Bobby Jindal are both eligible to run and become Vice President or President.
* Emphasis mine (A/O)
8 comments:
And why can't you believe someone at Fox News wrote this? The only unwritten assumption I can see there is that you think Fox, corporately, identified with the "birther" point of view; if that's the case, I'm guessing you have no evidence for it - especially since it isn't true.
There are natural born citizens and then there are citizens born by Caesarean section. But it really doesn't matter because all citizens have no standing, so we can't use the courts to stop anyone from running.
The meaning of Natural Born Citizen used in AMERICA (not Switzerland) at the time that the US Constitution was written referred to citizenship due to the place of birth. ONLY the place of birth. Not the parents. Only the place of birth.
“Under the longstanding English common-law principle of jus soli, persons born within the territory of the sovereign (other than children of enemy aliens or foreign diplomats) are citizens from birth. Thus, those persons born within the United States are "natural born citizens" and eligible to be President. Much less certain, however, is whether children born abroad of United States citizens are "natural born citizens" eligible to serve as President ..."---- Edwin Meese, et al, THE HERITAGE GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION (2005) [Edwin Meese was Ronald Reagan’s attorney general, and the Heritage Foundation is a well-known Conservative organization.]
Moreover, his view was not alone:
“Natural born citizen. Persons who are born within the jurisdiction of a national government, i.e. in its territorial limits, or those born of citizens temporarily residing abroad.” — Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition
“What is a natural born citizen? Clearly, someone born within the United States or one of its territories is a natural born citizen.” (Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on OCTOBER 5, 2004)--Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT).
"Prior to the adoption of the constitution, the people inhabiting the different states might be divided into two classes: natural born citizens, or those born within the state, and aliens, or such as were born out of it. The first, by their birth-right, became entitled to all the privileges of citizens; the second, were entitled to none, but such as were held out and given by the laws of the respective states prior to their emigration. ...St. George Tucker, BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES: WITH NOTES OF REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. (1803)
"Therefore every person born within the United States, its territories or districts, whether the parents are citizens or aliens, is a natural born citizen in the sense of the Constitution, and entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to that capacity."---William Rawle, A VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2d ed. (1829)
That's just a few of the opinions, which stem from the key US Supreme Court ruling, Wong Kim Ark, which ruled that EVERY child born in the USA, except for the children of foreign diplomats, is Natural Born.
Thanks for the post. Enjoy the can of worms you opened :)
Brett Baier is one of my favorite journalists. I find him to be knowledgeable, fair-minded and unassuming. Your egregious snark at him and at Fox is uncalled for; I'm very disappointed.
Anon - Every does not mean ONLY. Martin Van Buren was the first man to qualify for President using the interpretation you provide. The seven men before him were all born subjects of the English Crown, in posessions of said crown, NOT in the United States (it didn't exist yet). Alexander Hamilton was born on an island that remains to this day a posession of the Crown (Bermuda).
Also, it does not follow to make one claim pursuant to what was meant by the framers in the words they wrote, and then purport to back it up with excerpts and cases from much later, all trying to clarify how those words ought to be read.
Finally, citizenship is not just a matter of internal policy, but part of the Law of Nations. It is an instrument by which countries know who is and who is not "us" and "them". Take the example of the children of foreign diplomats, born here to foreign parents. Surely they are citizens of their mother country, though they weren't born there. This is a maxim of the Law of Nations and holds for all of them, the United States included. Therefore, your stress on EVERY (and by the way, using capital letters makes your point as well as yelling in person)does not also read as "only". To say that "only" those people born within the territorial boundaries would be illogical, and would forcibly ignore the laws on the books.
repeat EVERY US citizen is a Natural Born US citizen.
Not every person born in the USA because, as you point out, the children of foreign diplomats are an exception, but every US citizen who was born in the USA is a Natural Born US citizen. In fact, the only kind of a US citizen who is NOT a Natural Born citizen is a naturalized citizen.
Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis, not that it matters. Because he was not born in one of the 13 American colonies, he was not an American at birth. George Washington was an American at birth, and when the Declaration of Independence was signed George Washington became automatically a US citizen. No, he was never naturalized, he was a Natural Born US citizen.
Birthers have this strange idea that because Washington was at one time a British subject Washington was not a Natural Born Citizen.
This is silly.Do you think that people born in Ireland were not Natural Born Irish citizens at the moment that Ireland became independent from Britain, or Australians or Canadians or Indians?
ALL of those nations, as does the USA, consider that the meaning of Natural Born refers to the place of birth, and that the country was Australian or Canadian or Indian long before it became independent, and that at the moment of independence the person born in that country became a Natural Born Citizen of that country. So the grandfather clause was not written to make George Washington eligible to be president. It was written to allow Alexander Hamilton, who was not born in one of the 13 colonies (and some others such as James Wilson) who were naturalized citizens, to be eligible to become president.
Here is an example of how Natural Born Citizen was used in America very shortly after the US Constitution went into effect showing (1) that Natural Born Citizen referred to the place of birth; and (2) that people born in America were considered Natural Born citizens even before the Constitution.
"Prior to the adoption of the constitution, the people inhabiting the different states might be divided into two classes: natural born citizens, or those born within the state, and aliens, or such as were born out of it. The first, by their birth-right, became entitled to all the privileges of citizens; the second, were entitled to none, but such as were held out and given by the laws of the respective states prior to their emigration. ...St. George Tucker, BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES: WITH NOTES OF REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. (1803)
As you can see, that quotation refers ONLY to the place of birth. Natural Born Citizens were "those born within a state."
And here is how it was used in 1829 by a man who had been friends with many of the writers of the Constitution:
"Therefore every person born within the United States, its territories or districts, whether the parents are citizens or aliens, is a natural born citizen in the sense of the Constitution, and entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to that capacity."---William Rawle, A VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2d ed. (1829)
Continuing:
Here is the key quotation from the Wong Kim Ark ruling:
"It thus clearly appears that, by the law of England for the last three centuries, beginning before the settlement of this country and continuing to the present day, aliens, while residing in the dominions possessed by the Crown of England, were within the allegiance, the obedience, the faith or loyalty, the protection, the power, the jurisdiction of the English Sovereign, and therefore every child born in England of alien parents was a natural-born subject unless the child of an ambassador or other diplomatic agent of a foreign State or of an alien enemy in hostile occupation of the place where the child was born.
III. The same rule was in force in all the English Colonies upon this continent down to the time of the Declaration of Independence, and in the United States afterwards, and continued to prevail under the Constitution as originally established."
That is why the US Congress confirmed Obama's election UNANIMOUSLY. Not one single member in the 535 members (most of whom are lawyers) thinks that the meaning of Natural Born refers to parents. That is why Edwin Meese, Ronald Reagan's attorney general had the paragraph shown above in his book, and that is why currenty four state appeals courts (Indiana, Georgia, Arizona and New Jersey) and one federal district court have all ruled that, as the Wong Kim Ark ruling said, the meaning of Natural Born Citizen comes from the common law and includes every US citizen who was born in the country.
For further research see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause
And
http://naturalborncitizenshipresearch.blogspot.com/
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