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> The Constitution actually cites common law. It never sites de Vattel.

The Constitution does not “cite” Blackstone either!

Blackstone is NOT the end all and be all of common law. One of the first and — throughout England's history — one of the most significant treatises of the common law, Bracton’s De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae ("On the Laws and Customs of England"), which was heavily influenced by the division of the law in Justinian’s Institutes.

But the Declaration of Independence does recognize Natural Law. That would be Vattel, who heavily influenced French Ambassador Franklin. Franklin helped Jefferson by editing the drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin was also the head delegate in the First "Committee of Eleven" that began drafting the Constitution in the summer of 1787.

Blackstone, in contrast, saw that Natural Law might be useful in determining the content of the common law and in deciding cases of equity, but was not itself identical with the laws of England.

Further, the Constitution does not cite the Ten Commandments or the Bible.

But as the majority of Framers feared their Christian God, there is no doubt that the influence of our Republic's laws from the Ten Commandments — and the Bible from which they came — is indelible on the Declaration of Independence that founded our nation:

Then in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

-snip-

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Don't believe the wiggy.

You are correct!

Natural Law: Life, Liberty, and Property was based on the philosophy of John Locke.

Locke said that if a government went against natural law and failed to protect “life, liberty, and property,” people could justifiably overthrow the existing state and create a new one.

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson replace Locke's idea with “happiness.

It becomes Life, Liberty And the Pursuit of Happiness.

"The Constitution does not “cite” Blackstone either!"

Of course it didn't. Blackstone merely is a source to show you what English common law said. But he is not the authority. English common law is the authority.

But the Declaration of Independence does recognize Natural Law.

Well... de Vattel hardly invented the concept of "natural law." But that's neither here nor there. The Declaration is not the Constitution, and it only mentions "citizens" once without any discussion of how citizenship is obtained.

As you might recall, we are talking about Presidential eligibility, remember? The Declaration is rather irrelevant to that issue.

"Further, the Constitution does not cite the Ten Commandments or the Bible."

No surprise since so many of the framers were heretics. But is does cite common law.