I really think birthplace was most important to the FF's. They wanted immersion in the Constitutional system and the president to grow up loving and experiencing their country. It's hard to do that from thousands of miles away.
What is the effect on a child’s “natural born citizen” status if, having attained citizenship by (1) birthplace or (2) descent, subsequently that child is adopted by the citizen of a different nation and made a citizen of his adoptive father’s land?
Under the assumption that natural born means born on U.S. soil for the reasons I stated, Obama's elibility would also be voided this way.
If a child’s parent’s foreign citizenship, under the laws of that nation, descends to the child at birth, what effect, if any, does that have on the child’s “natural born citizen” status?
Here again, I would argue nothing, if born on U.S. soil.
Obama spent four years in Indonesia living pretty much as an Indonesian does and living as a Muslim
Obama spent the rest of his formative years in Hawaii
Sorry but Hawaii is barely part of America with its strong Asian and native Hawaiian Islander background
It has never been very "white" and very few blacks live there today and even fewer back in Obama's day
The native Hawaiians are agitating to be recognized as an Indian tribe so they can make mega bucks off casinos
Back when 0 lived there Hawaii was such an exotic multicultural stew that Frank Marshall Davis moved there with his white wife to get away from being hassled for this inter racial marriage. Such marriages were very far from the norm back then but barely noticed in Hawaii
Obama's Hawaiian years were from his birth in 1961 until he went Occidental College in LA at age 18
His interlude was ages 6-10 in Indonesia
(my words)Here again, I would argue nothing, if born on U.S. soil.
Perhaps I am discounting the descent question too much. One parent would have to be American and at least 18 to confer citizenship to a child, in my mind, along with being born on American soil. So when foreign citizenship comes into question, I suppose that the number of years the child spent in a foreign country would be most important in determining which nationality is determinant.
There are arguments that make sense, but there are also many laws involved that would have to inform the Supreme Court’s ruling if it took this case.
There are many, many laws and precedents on *citizenship.* However, very little of it, as far as I can see, in any way contemplates how that analysis goes to *eligibility to serve as President.* IOW, it’s simply not clear that a case that talks about whether a person is a citizen at birth automatically encompasses the status of “natural born citizen” as well.
If “natural born citizen” is determined SOLELY by birthplace, then John McCain is not a “natural born citizen.”
If “natural born citizen” is determined, either in whole or in part, by citizenship by descent (the citizenship of one or both parents passes to the child at birth), then John McCain is a natural born citizen.
If citizenship by descent is *necessary,* in whole or in part, to being a “natural born citizen,” then, regardless of birthplace, Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen” would then depend on whether laws at the time provided for citizenship by descent from his mother (a U.S. citizen), his father (a non-U.S. citizen, assuming his father is BHO I), or whether the law required that a “natural born citizen” receiving U.S. citizenship by descent from *both* parents.
None of this, as far as I can tell, and I am no particular scholar in this area of the law, is settled, nor has the Supreme Court had the opportunity to settle it in the context of an actual fact pattern-—where not only is there (arguably) a legal cognizable controversy raised by the facts, but the candidate about whom there is such controversy actually won the election and, therefore, the constitutional harm of seating an ineligible President is actually imminent.
My point is: yes, there are lines of reasoning that make sense, but there is also a lot of more or less relevant law and caselaw to account for. Including, perhaps, foreign law, as it may be relevant what citizenship Obama’s father had and how it may be renounced, if, e.g., that were necessary.