[butterdezillion]

When the wife calls, a wise man will always listen. lol.

The bill itself wouldn’t require that the person have 2 citizen parents. The bill would only require that if someone was born to a parent who was not a US citizen, the courts have to determine eligibility and the name cannot be placed on the ballot until the court determines that they are eligible.

And the cost of the court case would not fall on the prospective candidate; it would fall on the state. But the end result would be a court ruling establishing a working definition of “natural born US citizen” - the decision being made by the people the Constitution authorizes to interpret the Constitution.

Once that definition was in place the state could expect that ineligible candidates would not even try to be placed on the ballot, which would make the court costs a rare thing for the state. Hopefully it would be a one-time investment on behalf of the entire nation.

The only requirement the state would be making is for the candidate to authorize access to documentation pertinent to Constitutional eligibility. Would that be considered extra-Constitutional? It seems to me that if the law can currently require documentation for every federal employee before they can receive a federal paycheck, the issue of requiring documentation is already established as Constitutional. Would you agree?

[TNTNT]

I still feel that the scheme you have created to determine constitutional eligibility for POTUS could be construed as an unconstitutional infringement. Although you try to make the state responsible for the court costs involved, any candidate who is challenged will required to expend significant funds for representation in such an action. That in itself could be considered an infringement. But like I previously noted, it is not slam dunk and will bring the issue into the Judiciary. I just don't think you will be happy with the court's rulings, based on the previous rulings on this issue in the past 2 years. Particularly when SCOTUS was presented with this exact same issue in a Petition filed between the 2008 election and the inauguration ( I forget the name of the case , but believe it was brought by Donofrio). Not a single justice thought the issue had merit when it was legally ripe to be heard. They have since denied cert in another 9 cases. It obvious that they are of the opinion that the lower courts have properly decided the cases and the issues brought by the cases did not require SCOTUS intervention.