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To: BP2
In the end, I personally can see no other alternative than for the Courts to decide this, as Congress is too partisan to seriously tackle this question. Despite nearly 30 attempts by Congress to legally define or otherwise alter the interpreted meaning of "Natural Born Citizen" since the 1870s, no Bills have ever made it to the floor for an actual full Congressional vote.

Unless they were in the form of a Constitutional Amendment, it would not matter if they did make it to the floor, were voted on, passed and signed by the President. A mere law cannot overide the Constitution, nor define or redefine its terms. Much mischief would ensure if they could.

Thus Congress, even in an impeachment and/or Senate trial, cannot define "natural born citizen". They have no power to do so, other than the power to pass Cojnstitutional amendments for the several states to ratify.

265 posted on 04/09/2010 11:54:08 PM PDT by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato

I find it stunning that legislatures think they can rewrite the US Constitution that they swore to uphold without an Amendment.


276 posted on 04/10/2010 12:27:26 AM PDT by Red Steel
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To: El Gato; Fred Nerks; null and void; stockpirate; george76; PhilDragoo; Candor7; rxsid; ...

Unless they were in the form of a Constitutional Amendment, it would not matter if they did make it to the floor, were voted on, passed and signed by the President. A mere law cannot overide the Constitution, nor define or redefine its terms. Much mischief would ensure if they could.

Those closer to the 1787 Framing recognized this most basic of concepts in the new Republic.

Below is the earliest reference I've ever found in the US Congressional record regarding "natural born citizen," (sans the 1790 Immigration Act) calling for a Constitutional amendment to require EVERY member of Congress to be a "natural born citizen."

Originating from Massachusettswhere coincidentally the first recorded instance of a state legislature to begin using the term "natural born citizen" instead of "natural born subject" occurred in 1784 (following the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War) — this proposed 1798 US Amendment clearly shows that Americans in the 18th century recognized a CLEAR distinction between a "citizen" (required for the US Congress) and "natural born citizen" (required for the President):

Photobucket

In order to derive their working definition of "natural born citizen," the Framers would have have access to the little-known 1760 English version of Vattel’s “Law of Nations” (from which the 1797 American translation is taken), referenced by Patriot attorney James Otis of Massachusetts in his 1765 pamphlet “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved” .



309 posted on 04/10/2010 9:49:19 AM PDT by BP2 (I think, therefore I'm a conservative)
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