What is a natural-born citizen according to you and why would a child born overseas to American parent not be considered a natural-born citizen? According to you, that child would have to go through a process to become a U.S. citizen. I don't believe that child would have to go through any process because he has at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen. The debate is not about WHERE he was born. The debate is whether one or both parents must be a U.S. citizen.
Yes, but if the mother is under age there is a difference to that...I’ll look it up and get back to you.
Because the Constitution defines presidential eligibility as "Natural Born"....not simply "Native Born". Hence.....we realize that to the framers two separate conditions of birth citizenship existed.... and the understanding of the term, "Natural Born" in 1787 meant.....born on the soil of citizen parents (plural).
At the beginning of the nation there existed no "Natural Born Citizens" because there had been no Citizen Parents until the signing of the document. But, the framers did not want themselves excluded from the presidency so they included the grandfather clause (or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution). This then.... allowed anyone born a citizen (on the soil but with non citizen parents) to temporarily be eligible to run for the office. But after these folks passed on.... the Constitution would only allow folks to run that had been born on the soil....and also to citizen parents (plural).
"Naturalized Citizens" (given citizenship by law) were never eligible from the get go. Only "Citizens" (born on the soil) and "Natural Born Citizens" (both soil and parentage) were ever considered eligible.....and after the "Citizens" at the time of the adoption of the Constitution all died off.....then only "Natural Born Citizens" were to be eligible for the presidency from that time forward.
Please forgive me for the redundancy but this apparently is a difficult concept for some....thinking that simply "Born on the soil" means "Natural Born". Not if your parents are not citizens themselves....and the wording in [Article II; Section I] proves it.
Many folks will say that the term "Natural Born" is ambiguous because the Constitution does not define it. So what? They didn't have to define it because everyone knew (at the time) exactly what the term meant. This would be similar to folks 200 years from now attempting to determine what we meant by the term "Super Bowl".
We don't have to say "Super Bowl Football Game" (further defining the term) because everyone already knows that the "Super Bowl" is football! We also know that the "World Series" is baseball......but for folks a couple of hundred years from now, reading about it.....may not know without a little detective work.
There are ample sources from the 18th century (and the 19th) that indicate "Natural Born" means....born on the soil to citizen parents. So a child born overseas is eliminated from seeking the presidency according to the Constitution. The current occupant may have been born here (on the soil) but he is disqualified for another reason.....that of parentage.
His father was a British subject and according to British law.....so would be.....Barack Jr. Therefore, if he were born on the soil (and not in Kenya) he would still be ineligible because of his dual citizenship.
But.....since precedent has now been set.....there are some folks who are not "Natural Born" in the strictest sense that would be excellent presidents of this country. If one of these folks happens to run..... the Republican party is sure to be attacked by the "dummies" for it.....so they had better be prepared to say, "So what? Your man had dual citizenship....and was disqualified from the beginning!"
If the Republicans nominate one of these folks who are not natural born they need to ignore this phony birth issue (regarding Obama) and concentrate on the fact that Barack Obama had dual citizenship because of his parentage....and was ineligible for that reason. The precedent has now been set.....so the Democrats can stuff it!