Fine. Show me an example of any textbook in any field that deals with constitutional issues, civics, history, social studies, or law, that defines natural born citizenship as you claim it is defined.
Fine. Show me an example of any textbook in any field that deals with constitutional issues, civics, history, social studies, or law, that defines natural born citizenship as you claim it is defined.
show me one that defines it the way you claim or any definition.
Wow, while I was gone you all really got heated about this discussion. There were many posts to me so I will try to see if I can cover them all in one post.
First of all let me explain why I never brought the subject up about both parents needing to be U.S. citizens. My original questions regarding the definition of “natural born citizen” were with regard to senator McCain. In his case it was questionable because he was born in a hopsital in Panama, even though both his parents were citizens. When Obama’s birthplace began to be questioned I started following those threads as well.
I didn’t even think about both parents needing to be citizens until shortly before July 4th, 2008 when I was discussing the question of eligibility over the telephone with a friend I had attended grade school with. She raised the issue with me regarding the need for both parents to be citizens, reminding me of the discussions in our grade school classes together when our teacher used her and her family as an example to help explain to us what it meant to be a natural born citizen. I hadn’t thought about it until then because it wasn’t something that had been important to me at the time, because my parents and even my grandparents and great grandparents were all U.S. citizens and I was born in the United States. When she brought up the subject, however, I did remember the discussions because she was pretty upset at the time that she couldn’t grow up to be the first female president of the U.S.
She had invited me to a BBQ a few days later on the fourth of July at her home. I did a little searching over the Internet but had not been able to find anything that substantiated what we had been taught in school or what defined the term natural born citizen. I printed off what little I had found and gave it to her at the BBQ which raised the discussion there. There were 5 of us from our grade school class at the BBQ and we all remembered the discussions about her citizenship and the “natural born citizen” clause and how our teacher had used her family as an example in the class. This example was used again when we went to middle school and again in high school in discussions about the constitution. Thankfully, by then my friend had decided she didn’t care about being the first female president and had gotten over being hurt by having her family used as an example.
Another individual at the BBQ (much younger than the rest of us), informed us that this interpretation was incorrect based on a Supreme Court ruling on the matter. He indicated to us that a court case had decided that if you were born in the United States you were a natural born citizen, and that it didn’t matter if your parents were not citizens of the United States. He was a lawyer, so we assumed he knew what he was talking about. Furthermore, virtually everyone else at the BBQ agreed with him, so we assumed that the citizenship of the parents did not mater if a person was born in the United States.
Now had my friend not raised the issue with me, and reminded me of the discussions in our classes I might not have remembered what we had learned in school because it wasn’t something that was particularly important to me since my ancestors had lived in this country for generations. When she did raise the issue, however, it brought out my own memories that had been tucked away for years. When you get to my age you realize that many memories come flooding back to you when someone else mentions an event that had been an important memory for them but not necessarily for you.
When I became aware of the Donofrio suit in November 2008, it seemed agree with the example our teacher had used when we were in grade school and I beleive I indicated that in my first post regarding the lawsuit.
As far as a U.S. textbook of any kind that deals with a more detailed definition of “natural born citizen” I have no idea if there even is one. I have not found any that even address the issue. There is, however, a definition in International law by Emerich de Vattel entitled “The Law of Nations” where it states:”The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.”
I hope this answers everyone’s questions.