Posted on 11/26/2018 7:48:12 AM PST by Signalman
That is not debatable unless you don’t support the constitution AS WRITTEN!.
Best answer to the question is Vattel’s Law of Nations which was the source of the phrase, Natural Born Citizen.It requires the child to be born of TWO CITIZEN parents and born on US Soil.
The question being asked, IMO, is how the clause found its way into the draft and what Washington and the ratifiers understood and intended with the language. (In this regard it is helpful to recall the Constitution is a contract, not legislation.)
Washington, of course, intended what Jay suggested for the CinC. Jay's suggestion was clear: an ordinary citizen, as thought of at the time, was not sufficient.
What sort of higher citizenship was required? The highest class of citizenship remaining at the time was that which precluded allegiance not only by birthright but also by parentage to any foreign nation.
Whether the ratifiers were versed on Vattel or not, they well understood by virtue of their most recent bloody war with England, the boundaries and necessity of allegiance.
More like Trump has the goods on the Brits. They conspired with the democrats to interfere with our election and then once the President won they participated in an attempted coup.
More like Trump has the goods on the Brits. They conspired with the democrats to interfere with our election and then once the President won they participated in an attempted coup.
IMO, Vattel is an unnecessary dead-end from which we might not escape.
Whether the ratifiers were versed on Vattel or not,
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Vattel was the ORIGIN of the designation “natural born citizen.” The Law of Nations was also NAMED in the Constitution. Dismissal of the “language” is a bit strange. The volumes were written in French which most educated people of the time spoke fluently. The Founders were all familiar with the Law of Nations as has been proven through letters to Benjamin Franklin from the printer,Charles Dumas and records of the Philadelphia Library which state George Washington never returned his copy which he borrowed from the library. Natural born Citizen is defined as
being born of two parent citizens and born on US soil. iow A natural born citizen can be nothing other than American. He cannot be anything other than American and thereby owing NO Allegiance to any other country.
Attempts to defer to English Common Law loses sight of the fact that English “citizens” are SUBJECTS of the Crown. WE are a Constitutional Republic with all the benefits thereof.
Vattel’s Law of Nations provided the framework of our unique form of government, not John Locke.
The parties that appear before the USSC, if it decides to hear the issue, may make great of Vattel and the opposition will offer many arguments against the point.
Whether the court places emphasis on Vattel's writings, with which only some, many or all of the ratifiers may have been familiar, or simply considers the obvious intent of the parties, to secure a CinC of undivided loyalty, or gives each feature equal weight, the issue should not be a long or difficult matter for the court.
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