Posted on 03/01/2009 4:35:14 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
There has been much debate over what constitutes a natural born citizen. Much of the debate has been misinformed calling the concept of natural born an obscure technicality or an overight by the writers of the Constitution. Neither of these characterizations are true.
Many times the true meaning of consitutional wording must be determined by looking at the era and the circumstances, and, in some cases, terminology in other sections of the constitution, the inclusion or exclusion of supporting verbage, and even writings other than the Constitution.
Article 2, section 1 of the Constitution states, "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible who shall not attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United Satates."
The addition of a grandfather clause in this paragraph says a lot as to the meaning of natural born. The first thing it says is that being born in the US is not enough to be natural born, otherwise the grandfather clause would not be necessary. The writers and delegates, having been born in the US, wanted to be eligible for the presidency, but most were the children of British subjects. Knowing that that eliminated them from being natural born and, thus, from eligibility, they included the grandfather clause which expired when the last person alive at the time of the ratification of the Constitution died. So, being a native born citizen is not the same as being natural born. If it were the framers would not have included the clause.
When asked to define natural born citizen, John Bingham, the author of the 14th ammendment which extended the bill of rights to former slaves, stated, "Any human born to parents who are US citizens and are under no other jurisdiction or authority." The Naturalization Act of 1790, also passed by this congress, declared "And the children of citizens of the US shall be considered as natural born, provided that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been a resident of the US." Neither of these definitions, one from US law, mentions birthplace, only the parents' citizenship.
This concept of citizenship by blood as opposed to citizenship by geography is a concept with a long history in British common law. A law passed in 1677 says that natural born citizens are those persons born to British citizens, including those born overseas. Alexander Porter wrote an article over 100 years ago in which he declares that the framers drew upon this difference in the law of heredity and territorial allegiance to define a third class of citizen applicable only to the eligibility to hold the office of president. According to Morse, "the framers thought it wise to provide that the president should at least be the child of citizens owing allegiance only to the US at the time of birth." He goes on to say that the the eligibility of the president "was scarcely intended to bar the children of American citizens, whether born at sea or in foreign territory."
The concept of citizenship by blood also precludes the equation of natural born with native born as the latter strictly demands geographical requirements.
Many argue that Barack Obama was eligible to be a state senator and a US senator and could not suddenly be ineligible to be president, but that is exactly the case. If this premise were true, Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, would also be eligible to be president, and it is established that he is not.
Barack Obama has proudly and publicly stated that his father was a citizen of Kenya. We know his mother was eigteen years old when he was born. These two facts make Obama ineligible to be president. No birth certificate is needed as proof, and it doesn't matter at all where Obama was born. His father's non-citizenship is all the law requires. He is ineligible from the beginning, meaning he is NOT the president and can be removed from office without any impeachment or trial, it requires only a ruling by the SCOTUS. HE is, in fact, a usurper, a pretender or a fake.
So why has Obama been shepharded into our highest elected office regardless of the fact that he is, according to his own statements and the law of the land, ineligible for that office? It is because those whose responsibility it is to insure the eligibility of the president, the SCOTUS, has chosen, in violation of the law, not to override the voters that voted for Obama. They are are cowards who violate their sworn oath rather than make an unpopular ruling. We are no longer a republic ruled by law, but, instead have become a democracy with rules made up as we go along, never to be written as law.
POSTSCRIPT: In each and every case dismissed by the SCOTUS challenging Obama's eligibility the reason for dismissal had nothing to do with the merits of the plaintiff's claim. Not once did the SCOTUS rule Obama was eligible or even consider whether he was or not, rather they dismissed each case on the technicality of plaitiff's lack of standing to file the case.
> Not once did the SCOTUS rule Obama was eligible or even consider whether he was or not, rather they dismissed each case on the technicality of plaitiff’s lack of standing to file the case.
There ya go...
Be careful what you wish for. If Present Potato Head is not Constitutionally eligible to be Present of the United States, that also means he is not Constitutionally restricted to serving only two terms.
I'm starting to think that's what we've been all along. It's just that Liberals figured that out decades ago.
Pingaling
pingalingaling
actually, it would mean he would be arrested for fraud and frog marched out of the office.
of course, the next step would be blacks rioting, the dollar tanking further, markets collapsing, and then the Constitutional crisis will begin... as they start to roll-back all legislation he has signed, executions orders he issue, and appointments he has made. anyone convicted under laws he signed would be re-tried (i think), and judges he appointed would have their cases re-tried (or thrown out). military personnel performing any ‘aggressive’ actions overseas would find themselves up for war crimes charges.
the list goes on.
since this is even a remote possibility, just to absolutely rule it out... his eligibility MUST be determined.
Great article.
Ping for Starwise!
Interesting, but wrong. The “grandfather clause” was needed because the Framers wanted to make sure that all U.S. citizens at the founding, including Alexander Hamilton (born in the Caribbean island of Nevis), could become president. And even had the “grandfather clause” really been adopted to allow the likes of George Washington and John Adams to become president, it would have been because someone could have been hypertechnical and claimed that they were not U.S. citizens at birth because *no one* was born a U.S. citizen in 1732 and such because the United States of America did not yet exist formally.
A natural-born citizen is a U.S. citizen at birth. If Obama was born in the U.S., he is a natural-born citizen. However, if he was born in Kenya (as his step-grandmother claimed), then he wasn’t a U.S. citizen at birth under the laws in effect in 1961 (because his father was a non-citizen abnd his 18-year-old U.S.-citizen mother obviously had not resided in the U.S. for 5 years after the age of 14). So where Obama was born is yhe key to determining whether or not he is a natural-born citizen.
Bottom line: nobody is going to want to deal with that. We just need to suck it up for the next 3 years and 11 months until President Sarah Jean Palin takes the oath of office.
“The first thing it says is that being born in the US is not enough to be natural born, otherwise the grandfather clause would not be necessary. The writers and delegates, having been born in the US, wanted to be eligible for the presidency, but most were the children of British subjects. Knowing that that eliminated them from being natural born and, thus, from eligibility, they included the grandfather clause which expired when the last person alive at the time of the ratification of the Constitution died.”
I always thought that was written because since these men were creating the United States, none of them could have been born in it.
bump
This is what the media will not state/report, plus unfortunately, we have had a serious decline in educated voters who know anything except what they learned in socially engineered classes. Sadly, I see far too many who quit high school dating back to mandatory integretation. In 62-65, I had several 21 year old plus friends, who were still seniors in high school. I think the state law required all to graduate from high school as a minimum, unless it was a pregnant female, which was very rare back then. I only recall one female who got pregnant during my senior year out of a graduating class of nearly a thousand.
I concur.
If Present Potato Head is not Constitutionally eligible to be Present of the United States, that also means he is not Constitutionally restricted to serving only two terms.
Not necessarily. It means that Obama would become ineligible for the office of President, and consequently, he would be eligible to serve...zero terms. However, such a finding would create a Constitutional crisis unparalleled in recent decades, spurring "clarification" of the rules that may not be...exactly favorable to our viewpoint.
There are several reasons Barry Barack Hussein Soetero Obama is not eligible to be POTUS. Most of us know them, I won’t bore you with the list. As the article says, the SCOTUS and other courts were cowards (and/or corrupt) for not letting the many cases proceed. The chances he is a total fake are pretty good IMHO. There is no good reason to hide all the records he is hiding. There is plenty of smoke for this fire to be real. I never never call him president. He has not earned the right to that title.
SCOTUS is derelict, our Republic is in grave danger, and the usurper is making noise about starting an updated version of the SA.
This is NOT going to end well.
ML/NJ
I was just being a smartass.
May the wrath of God be upon the SCOTUS without mercy.
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