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To: Seizethecarp
I agree with all of those points. I would like to add (though you likely already know, many around here don't seem to understand) dual citizenship is something that needs to be applied for. There isn't some big computer that says, “Oh, Brit kid born in Vermont, let's send out the citizenship papers!” If a child's parents do not apply for citizenship for another country, do they get “punished” for having the opportunity to have dual citizenship?
Better example, many people in the US have the opportunity to apply for Italian citizenship if one of their grandparents came from Italy. If they apply for it, does that negate their chances of being legally allowed to run for president? How about Israeli citizenship? What if they don't apply (or even know that they can)? Does it still count against them?
My whole point for coming on this thread was that I am annoyed with people thinking that the USSC could look at Obama’s case and make a ruling that was based on Vattel without taking into consideration all of the nuances that are now options for Americans with mixed heritage. I think there is so much gray area that they would have to rule that a parent who applied for dual citizenship, but that was not used by the kid? I mean, if BO has dual citizenship, (which I think he lied about to sound cool to the intellectual crowd, not thinking it would bite him in the a**) when did he use it? Perhaps to get scholarships (makes sense, but not as much as a black kid getting $$$ under AA) Did he ever live in the UK, or even visit? Maybe that is where those dratted Kindergarten records that are missing (and have lots of Freepers panties in a twist over) are located. I lived in Scotland for the year I went to kindergarten, and never got those records, either. I guess I can't run for president? (ridiculous, eh?)
Anyway, sorry to pile on, but no one ever answers these questions, they just make a lot of vague and damning sounding points without ever really explaining why they are damning (besides using foreign birth for scholarships, which could be very likely).
539 posted on 04/23/2010 4:18:42 AM PDT by Rutabega (European 'intellectualism' has NOTHING on America's kick-a$$ism!)
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To: Rutabega; little jeremiah; edge919; BP2; rxsid; LucyT; Red Steel
“Better example, many people in the US have the opportunity to apply for Italian citizenship if one of their grandparents came from Italy. If they apply for it, does that negate their chances of being legally allowed to run for president? How about Israeli citizenship? What if they don't apply (or even know that they can)? Does it still count against them?”

Yes, many countries allow multi-generational bloodline descendants of their citizens to apply for citizenship, but to start with, NBC status is a status at birth and no mention is made in Vattel for any requirement other than being the child of citizens (father and by extension mother) born on US soil.

To my knowledge SCOTUS has not ruled on this, but at the time the US Constitution was ratified having two US citizen parents one or both of whom were themselves dual citizens or still claimed as citizens by another sovereign (mostly the UK) was widespread. This includes lots of citizens born after the grandfathered date of ratification. But NBC is not defined directly in the Constitution.

It seems clear to me (assuming common usage of NBC came from Vattel) that the founders concern incorporated in the Constitution extended to only whether the legal father was a citizen (and by legal extension the mother).

Knowledge that some fathers were dual citizens was known at the time of ratification, but was not specified as an exclusion for a child to be considered to be an NBC in the writings of the founders including John Jay in his letter to George Washington. Only birth on US soil and the US citizenship of the father and by extension the mother mattered. Any dual citizenship of the father was not discussed but, again, was widely known to be claimed by the UK.

540 posted on 04/23/2010 9:26:49 AM PDT by Seizethecarp
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