Posted on 06/29/2019 6:34:55 PM PDT by morphing libertarian
If you are born in Guam or Puerto Rico, you are automatically granted citizenship. If you are born in American Samoa, that isn't the case. Despite American Samoa's status as a U.S. territory, the people who are born there aren't technically U.S. citizens. They're called U.S. nationals, a status that means they pay American taxes but cannot vote, run for office, or serve on a jury. They also have special passports that declare them nationals, but not U.S. citizens.
Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa, Maoputasi County, on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila.[3] She was the fourth of five children[4] born to Carol (née Porter) and Mike Gabbard. In 1983, when Gabbard was two years old, her family moved to Hawaii. Her father is a member of the Hawaii Senate.[5]
Gabbard was raised in a multicultural and multireligious household. Her father is of Samoan and European ancestry and an active lector at his Catholic church. Her mother, who was born in Decatur, Indiana, is of German descent and a practicing Hindu. Tulsi chose Hinduism as her religion while she was a teenager.[6][4][7]
Gabbard was home-schooled through high school except for two years at a missionary academy for girls in the Philippines.[8] She graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 2009.[9][10][11]
Eventually, the other four territories listed above gained birthright citizenship through statutes, meaning people who are born there are automatically U.S. citizens. But because American Samoa is the only territory still classified as unincorporated, people who are born there are only considered U.S. citizens if they have a parent who is a U.S. citizen. Otherwise, they have to go through the same lengthy, expensive naturalization process as any other person who isn’t a citizen—with no guarantee that it will be successful.
The lawsuit is the second such attempt within the past decade. The first, filed in 2012, was ultimately unsuccessful, with the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that the 14th Amendment does not apply to overseas territories. The court decided not to reconsider that ruling when it was brought up again in 2016.
Leneuoti Tuaua, a former marshal for the High Court of American Samoa who holds two chief titles, was one of seven American Samoans who filed the first lawsuit. Tuaua said American Samoans are treated differently whenever they travel abroad, even to places like independent Samoa—the island country next door.
How did she get thru all of the restrictions?
June 5 2015
After an Appeals Court ruling on Friday, American Samoa remains the only place in the United States where U.S. citizenship is not granted at birth.
As my colleague Mark Joseph Stern explained recently, anyone born in the other four unincorporated U.S. territories—Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—automatically becomes a citizen. But things work differently in American Samoa, a group of islands 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. Samoans can only claim citizenship if they have a parent who was a citizen; otherwise, they have to go through the same naturalization process of non-Americans.
what restrictions? Do you mean the ones Obama went thru
You’re about to find out how many people on FR oppose upholding the Constitution.
I don’t believe Kamala Harris is eligible either.
Her mother was born in Indiana so a US citizen. According to Wikipedia, her father also has US citizenship from his father. So she is as eligible as John McCain or Ted Cruz (probably more so than Ted Cruz).
There is no mechanism to stop the ineligible from running.
The Kenyan from Indonesia proved that.
LOL I know i frequent the NBC threads Obama and Harris and cruz.
the secretaries of state can keep them off the ballot The USSC could man up
The party could reject
Ted Cruz is as eligible as Winston Churchill, both had American mothers.
You’re right, it is the duty of the various state secretaries of state to check.
Were her parents American? If yes, she is American
not a citizen at birth. Born in Samoa are you readings the information
People born in Samoa are US Nationals not US citizens
Let me ask you why did congress pass a resolution saying Mccain could run. Weren’t his parents US citizens.
BTW the answer is, they were americans
According to the law, which is readily accessable online, if her father is actually a US citizen, which is the claim, she is eligible to run, but that doesn’t mean she will win.
I imagine it's going to take State Secretaries leaving candidates off the ballots over perceived ineligibility before we see the courts take up the issue.
The definition of NBC is born a citizen and of two citizen parents. she was born in Samoa that makes her a US “national” Samoa is unique ion this designation and that is not a citizen qualifying one to run.
Please link info to the contrary regarding samoan born people.
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