The Constitution is the Constitution. There are no other provisions in the Constitution or in any of its amendments that refer to positive or natural law. Similarly, you will not find the terms Catholic or protestant in the Constitution.
So, I am looking to the Constitution for the standard. It says "natural born citizen." I believe that if they meant something more or something else, they would have said so.
What you need to do is to understand that the definition in the Constitution is the definition operative at the time it was written. Natural born citizen at the time of the founding of the United States was universally understood to be the child of that is why it is not further defined.
The Founders referred to Vattel: The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.
“The Law of Nations” provides the Constitutional definition of a “natural born citizen, historical records reveal that Vattel’s work was quoted at the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, various State Constitutional Conventions, and was also referenced in a 1785 letter by John Jay regarding a diplomatic matter.
Rep. John Bingham, framer of the 14th Amendment- I find no fault with the introductory clause [S 61 Bill], which is simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen -Rep. John Bingham, framer of the 14th Amendment, before The US House of Representatives ((Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291, March 9, 1866 ) http://grou.ps/zapem/blogs/3787
Further evidence of the Founder’s understanding of the term natural born citizen:
The Naturalization Act of 1790 stated “children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens.”, but “considered as” does not change the definition of the term or the fact of the physical circumstances of birth, nor can conferring a privilege by statute change an eligibility requirement in the Constitution. The 1790 Act also provided that its terms only applied to the law then in effect, which was changed with the repeal of it in 1795.
When this Act was reconsidered, Madison himself pointed out that Congress only had constitutional authority to naturalize aliens, not U.S. citizens, and reported a bill that amended the statute to eliminate the words “natural born” and simply state that “the children of citizens of the United States” born abroad “shall be considered as citizens.” This indicates that Madison’s view was that children born abroad of U.S. citizens were naturally aliens, rather than natural born citizens, and thus could be naturalized by Congressional statute but should not be called “natural born.” Congress adopted this amendment in the Naturalization Act of 1795.
I know that.
There are no other provisions in the Constitution or in any of its amendments that refer to positive or natural law.
Obtuse and verbose simultaneously while saying nothing of either import or importance. Well done.
It says "natural born citizen."
And you said you use your own definition of "natural born citizen." What is your definition?
Is simply "born in the US" your definition? Is it simply "a US citizen at birth" as in USC 8?
Tau, Congress has tried to amend the Constitution over a dozen times during my lifetime to include foreign borns as NBC making them eligible for potus. The bills never go anywhere.
Globalist keep trying to dilute the office of the presidency. Ted is ineligible and if the RNC would be fool enough to select him as nominee it will make the DNC’s job laughingly simple.
There are close to 20 bills sitting in various state legislative houses known as “ballot-access bills.” For the General Election, candidates for potus & vpotus need to produce to the Secretary of State an original BC from America in order to be placed on the ballot. This summer, just one dem controlled state legislature would need to pass a ballot access bill. BINGO, Ted’s out of luck and so are we.
Texas has a ballot access bill, HB 295, wonder why they sat on it./s
“Texas legislators are already introducing bills for the 2011 legislative session. Representative Leo Berman recently introduced HB 295, which says that no presidential or vice-presidential candidate may be listed on the November ballot unless he or she has presented an “original birth certificate indicating that the person is a natural-born United States citizen.”
Note: Berman had 23 co-sponsors for the HB 295, all republicans.
“The Constitution is the Constitution. There are no other provisions in the Constitution or in any of its amendments that refer to positive or natural law. Similarly, you will not find the terms Catholic or protestant in the Constitution.”
The Constitution is not an 18th Century law dictionary. The authors of the Constitution relied upon prior common law, Law of Nations, and Law of Nature as the basis for drafting the Constitution and said so in the drafting of the Constitution, ratification of the Constitution, and subsequent case law analyses of the Constitution. Historical precedents in English, British, British American colonial, and U.S. law established the qualification of a lawful natural born citizen required birth with two citizen parents within the jurisdiction of the citizen parents’ sovereign. When the Constitution was drafted in the 18th Century there was no need to elaborate on the meaning of the natural born citizen clause given how no person to that time had ever been lawfully recognized as a natural born citizen without the qualification of birth with two citizen parents in the jurisdiction of their sovereign. All other persons were either naturalized subjects, natural born subjects, or naturalized citizens; but they were never natural born citizens without the forgoing qualifications.
Exactly. They didn't say "citizen" except to grandfather themselves in, meaning there is a difference between the two. They didn't say "naturalized" citizen. They said "natural" meaning it occurs naturally. Meaning there is no "law."