This makes for an interesting theoretical discussion. Nothing wrong with that. But as a practical matter, the ship has sailed. It’s out of the harbor and is far away. The issue was settled by the voters in 2008. No court would dare touch it now.
Good point.
This issue is discussed frequently here on Free Republic.
Some Freepers say the courts need to address this with a definitive ruling.
I suspect that if the courts ever did issue a ruling, the ruling would say that Barack and Kamala were eligible. And the key issue would be, that they didn’t have to go through the naturalization process. They were American citizens by birth, regardless of the immigration status of parents.
And regarding Obama, can you imagine the legal ramifications of nullifying the entire Obama administration after the fact? Agreed, no courts is going to rule that way.
>>”The issue was settled by the voters in 2008. No court would dare touch it now.”
They NEED to touch it, although I agree with you that as a practical matter it’s a non-issue this election. But the issue needs to be addressed at some point, whether that be through a Constitutional Amendment clarifying the issue or by a Supreme Court case. Allowing children of foreign born non-citizens to be President is not what the framers intended and it’s not something we should accept. And I would go further to suggest that judges (at least judges on the federal level) and Members of Congress should have the same restriction imposed upon them. That obviously would require legislative or Constitutional changes. But such changes should be made IMO.
Until SCOTUS issues an on-point (i.e., in a case having to do with POTUS eligibility requirements) majority decision and opinion that declares THE definition of the Constitutional term natural Born Citizen, the question will remain unanswered and the issue unresolved.
The contents of the noted volume by de Vattel dating to 1758 remains highly relevant in terms of the necessary original meaning analysis (as in, what did the term mean circa 1787).
They would if Trump himself made it an issue. He would have the standing to challenge Harris' eligibility. All he needs is to get a friendly judge in a friendly jurisdiction to find her not eligible and remove her from the ballot. It would get fast-tracked to SCOTUS for certain!
And Harris' constitutional eligibility would likely be confirmed in a 9-0 decision but at least the matter will have finally been settled.
This implies that the facts and evidence were placed before the voters, and they made an informed decision. The very opposite is true. Not only were they misled, the facts and evidence were kept away from them.
The leadership, whom they trusted to take care of details like "Is this guy legally qualified?" did not do their jobs, but nobody told the public.
The public went into the voting booth thinking that "if there was a problem with his legitimacy, then someone would stop it. The fact that he is on the ballot, must mean everything is okay. "
But you are right about "No court would date touch it now."
Firstly, they have been greatly misled by people "interpreting" the meaning of "natural born citizen" for them. The legal system is filled with people who do not know the truth, never bothered to learn it, and now continue to propagate mistaken erroneous ideas, and regard the matter as settled law.
Secondly, they are cowards, and do not want to touch this thing that might potentially burn their fingers.