“His mother had been outside the country too long to qualify her son to be a citizen automatically”
I had not heard that you lost your ability to pass on citizenship by living outside the US above a specified period of time. Can you point me to a link on that rule? Nothing on the State Department website that I ran across says that.
Per the State Department:
“Under the Child Citizenship Act, the U.S. citizen parent of a child living abroad must have five years of physical presence in the United States or its outlying possessions with at least two years occurring after age 14, in order to apply for citizenship on behalf of the child.”
It says five years with at least two after age 14 but it says nothing about losing your ability to pass it on beyond that.
Here’s one reference: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66787
Also what matters is the law at the time. Not what the law is now.
Yes it does, it says "must have."
In 1961 the requirement was ten years with five after the 14th birthday. Stanley Ann was only 18 when BHO was allegedly born. Thus she had not lived in the US for 5 years after her 14th birthday.
Source:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/1401.html
and the notes on this section of the US Code at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001401----000-notes.html
The change was made in 1986 when Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 99–653 substituted “five years, at least two” for “ten years, at least five”.