Your argument is fine and well-stated. However, American military installations are not American soil. I must preface this by saying if anyone’s child deserves to be a “natural born” or any other type of citizen, it should be the children of those who have served.
This is not about what you or I think is right or fair, but rather what the law says regarding constitutional requirements for the presidency. I think, as best I can interpret, that your child would be considered “natural born” by virtue of your being an American citizen. There are, however, a lot of references to “parents”, plural, and that is where it really gets complicated. I would be fine with the Father being a US citizen as the fulfillment of the necessary requirement for “natural born”. It is hard to know how a court or Congress will interpret the law. They managed to create a right to abortion out of whole cloth so anything is within the scope of possibilities.
I think your situation is what makes McCain “natural born”.
I’m not saying he wasn’t a citizen at birth, but that he is not a natural born citizen. These are distinct concepts. The ONLY consequence of importance for your son is that he is not eligible to be President.
I hope you haven’t hung all your hopes on his ascending to the Presidency. 8-)
I was born at Hahn AFB in Germany as well..;)
At 9 years old, I applied for and received a “Certificate of Citizenship” in Wichita Falls Tx that has all by birth particulars on it, along with my picture at the time and an embossed seal.
I’m not sure it is necessary but apparently my parents thought it was.
He's not saying your son (and potentially your daughter) are not citizens, just that they are not natural born citizens.
There are only two classes of citizens, natural born and naturalized. The question is, and I don't have an answer to it, are "citizen at birth" and "natural born citizen" the same thing, or should "citizen at birth" be considered "naturalized at birth"?
But either way, if The Messiah was born in Kenya, he's not a natural born citizen, since he wasn't born of two US Citizens (his criteria), and he wasn't born in the US, and his mother did not meet the required US residency criteria to transmit citizenship to him.
The "American soil" part is actually not correct. If it were, your son would not also have a German BC. However it doesn't matter, you were a citizen, and presumably had at least 5 years of US residency after your 14th birthday (including military time, no matter where stationed) at the time of his birth. If he was born after the law changed, it would only be 2 years.(Obama was born well before the change).
For example if some local woman who works on the base, manages to have a baby in the Enlisted barracks, the baby is not a US Citizen, unless the father is a US Citizen eligible to pass on citizenship and he acknowledges paternity, same as if the baby had been born in the hospital "in town".
This is, BTW, the reason it doesn't matter if McCain were born on the Naval base, or as it seems he was, in the hospital in Colon, Republic of Panama. BOTH his parents were so eligible, under the then existing law. There are some special cases for citizens of the US living in the Canal Zone, or there were, but they weren't passed until shortly after his birth, and wouldn't have directly applied to him anyway, since he met the broader criteria.