Not me. I’m not a lawyer. They’re the ones who split hairs.
As to whether you would be considered a US citizen if born in France to US citizens, the answer is yes. But your parents have to register your birth at the US Embassy as France would never recognize you as a citizen. Your parents weren’t French citizens. But would you be considered “natual born” as a citizen. Maybe not. It just so happens I’ve read the analyses of others on this issue.
That said, the important analysis I read concerned the original intent of Article II of the US Constitution as per its requirements for eligibility of a candidate for the Presidency. There are three requirements, the third being “a natural born citizen”. A major part of that analysis had to do with allegeince.
Basically, a person born to US citizens who while performing US government sanctioned duties in a foreign nation is considered a natural born citizen. Later, John McCain served as a Navy Officer and took an oath of allegeince to the US. His allegeince to the US is evident. There will no doubt be a challenge to his eligibility as the above is interpretation by Congress and NOT specifically in the US Constitution. (One constitutional scholar I spoke with stated emphatically that being born on US soil was the only thing that mattered. In that case, if McCain is elected and later found ineligible, Sarah Palin becomes President).
If you are born overseas and your parents aren’t working on assignment for the US government, as I understand it you would not be considered a “natural born” citizen but would have no difficulty securing US citizenship as your parents were both citizens. Even having dual citizenship would not hamper seeking US citizenship UNLESS the other nation does not recognize dual/multiple citizenship. In that case a requirement to repudiate the other nation’s citizenship and take an oath of allegience to the US would get your US citizenship granted (remember - both your parents are US citizens).
None of the above applies to Obama. He was most likely born in Kenya (the newspapers in Kenya openly state that as fact) and later he had Indonesian citizenship and may have traveled to Pakistan in 1981 (age 20) on an Indonesian passport.
Indonesia did not at that time (late 60s to early 70s) recognize dual citizenship. Since he was probably adopted by his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen, Obama would have had Indonesian citizenship.
No one can hold against him what his custodial parents did vis a vis his citizenship. But did he repudiate all other citizenships and take an oath of allegience to Indonesia in 1981 to get a passport stating he was Indonesian and Muslim? It surely would have made his progress through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia much easier.
Also Kenya was a colonial entity within the British Commonwealth in 1961 when Senator Obama was born. There is a very good chance that Senator Obama’s citizenship record is littered with British, Kenyan, and Indonesian claims on his allegience.
So the question shouldn’t be so much whether he is or is not a US “natural born citizen” but whether Senator Obama is too much a citizen of the world to care about our nation’s sovereignty.
Who is a natural-born citizen? Who, in other words, is a citizen at birth, such that that person can be a President someday?
The 14th Amendment defines citizenship this way: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” But even this does not get specific enough. As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps.
Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in those gaps. Section 1401 defines the following as people who are “citizens of the United States at birth:”
Anyone born inside the United States
Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person’s status as a citizen of the tribe
Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national
Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21
Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.
Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example.