Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

To: Sibre Fan
I think Wong Kim Ark clearly stands for the proposition that a child born in the United States is a citizen

Correct, the court did make that determination.

-- a native born citizen aka natural born citizen of the US, regardless of the citizenship of his parents.

Wrong. There is a clear distinction made in Wong Kim Ark, between a child born here of a resident alien, and the natural-born child of citizens. It is clear that a child born here of a resident alien is a citizen. But, it is also clear that such a child is not natural-born.

You're misconstruing citizenship with natural born citizenship. The two are not the same, under the Constitution. The rights and duties of all citizens are the same, except as the Constitution makes a distinction, whether they're newly minted and naturalized, or whether they're descended from nothing but natural born citizens all the way back to the first citizens of this country under the grandfather clause.

The only time the Constitution makes a distinction is regarding eligibility for the office of President.

So, Wong Kim Ark was a citizen, just as much of a citizen as the natural-born child of citizens.

To paraphrase, the legal status that Wong Kim Ark had in common with natural born citizens was citizenship, not being natural born.

62 posted on 09/21/2009 2:49:59 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies ]


To: RegulatorCountry
There is a clear distinction made in Wong Kim Ark, between a child born here of a resident alien, and the natural-born child of citizens.

Where? It's not there, sorry. Wong and multiple other Supreme Court and other cases clearly use "native born" and "natural born" interchangeably to mean the same thing -i.e., to mean born in the USA.
79 posted on 09/21/2009 3:40:21 PM PDT by Sibre Fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies ]

To: RegulatorCountry
So, Wong Kim Ark was a citizen, just as much of a citizenas the natural-born child of citizens.

Exactly. So Wong, born to noncitizen parents, was just as much a citizen as a citizen born to "natural-born citizens."

Child A, born to "natural-born" citizens, is a natural born citizen.
Under Wong, Child B, born to non-citizen parents is just as much of a citizen as Child A.
Therefore, Child B is a "natural-born citizen" just as much as Child A is.
80 posted on 09/21/2009 3:44:04 PM PDT by Sibre Fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson