Replies

I can’t help but notice that one of those definitions of “natural born” in the Oxford English Dictionary specifically mentions “natural born American citizen.” To wit:

“Every one who first saw the light on the American soil was a natural-born American citizen.”

Born on U.S. soil makes you a natural born citizen. No parental citizenship requirement stated or implied.

I can’t help but notice ....

It helps to understand what the OED is. It is more a history of the usage and meaning of English words than it is a conventional dictionary. Each one of those usage examples you see represents the earliest known usage of the word with the sense being exhibited. So that example in 1876 where natural-born essentially is used exactly the same way native-born could be used is the first known time it was used that way. Before that (like when the Constitution was written) it did NOT have that meaning.

ML/NJ

Aristotle, circa 350 BC.

It can be argued, but until the Supreme court rules on a strict definition we will just go around in circles. It is clear that the founders did not want a child of a British citizen to be eligible to be president. The phrase "at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution" illustrates that the founders excluded themselves, but not future prospects, so thought and discussion did take place. Unlike today, the framers chose their words very carefully when writing.

US Constitution (1787 ) Section II, Article 1, Clause 5

http: / / www .usconstitution.net/xconst_A2Sec1.html">www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A2Sec1.html

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN?

“Law of Nations” Book One, Chapter 19, 212 (1758) http :// www. constitution.org/vattel/vattel_01.htm

“The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country."

---

Rep. John Bingham, framer of the 14th Amendment, before The US House of Representatives (March 9, 1866 ) http:// grou.ps/zapem/blogs/3787

“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…[6]"

---

Circuit Justice Swayne, in United States vs Rhodes (1866) http: ///www. thecommentary.net/1861-circuit-justice-swayne-defines-natural-born-citizen

“All persons born in the allegiance of the king are natural born subjects, and all persons born in the allegiance of the United States are natural born citizens. Birth and allegiance go together. Such is the rule of the common law, and it is the common law of this country, as well [**18] as of England.”

---

Chief Justice Waite in Minor v. Happersett (1875) http:/ / www. law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0088_0162_ZO.html

“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first.”

---

Justice Grey, in US v Wong Kim Ark (1898) http:// caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=169&invol=649

“In Minor v. Happersett, Chief Justice Waite, when construing, in behalf of the court, the very provision of the fourteenth amendment now in question, said: 'The constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that.' And he proceeded to resort to the common law as an aid in the construction of this provision.”

---

Chief Justice Hughs, in Perkins v Elg ( 1939) http:// caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=307&invol=325

“Miss Elg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 2, 1907. Her parents, who were natives of Sweden, emigrated to the United States sometime prior to 1906 and her father was naturalized here in that year [1906] . In 1911, her mother took her to Sweden where she continued to reside until September 7, 1929. Her father went to Sweden in 1922 and has not since returned to the United States. In November, 1934, he made a statement before an American consul in Sweden that he had voluntarily expatriated himself for the reason that he did not desire to retain the status of an American citizen and wished to preserve his allegiance to Sweden.” [snip]

“The court below, properly recognizing the existence of an actual controversy with the defendants [307 U.S. 325, 350] (Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227 , 57 S.Ct. 461, 108 A.L.R. 1000), declared Miss Elg 'to be a natural born citizen of the United States' (99 F.2d 414) and we think that the decree should include the Secretary of State as well as the other defendants.”