[[The father, to establish citizenship-worthy paternity, had to have more than just a dna connection to the child, but also had to demonstrate a real, personal connection that could only be accomplished after the child was born.]]
Thank You for explaining this- I had read that this requirement had figured in fairly heavily into the naturalization acts especially for the mother because she was usually the one who had the most contact with a child as far as nurturing and forming a child’s moralities and allegiances, which was why later naturalization acts changed it from father to ‘either’ parent
[[However, unlike the mother, the best the citizen father could do would be to meet the required “connectedness” condition sometime after the birth, and only then have the citizenship attribute applied retroactively, back to the date of birth, but by process of law, and not as a condition inherent in the birth. Therefore, Maskell is correct in identifying an implicit federal dichotomy between automatic “by birth” citizenship (”natural born”) versus citizenship resulting from “after birth” events (”naturalization”).]]
Ok- it’s all falling into place for me now regarding the CRS report- I have always felt that citizenship should be ‘birthright’ or ‘citizenship by descent’ in a country made up of individual sovereigns (we the people)-
[[The above passage is classic dicta, placed there to offer clarity to questions that might arise in inferior courts, but not controlling law the way a holding would be. ]]
Could there ever be a SC ruling on the issue to settle it? Or will it always be ‘inferred’ that at birth and by birth are to be considered NBC?
I could be wrong, but I’m not optimistic this will ever be solved by adjudication. It’s very tough to get standing, and even if you do, SCOTUS will treat this sort of case like kryptonite, probably sweep it under the rug as a political question, etc.
My suggestion to some of the “Vattelians” has been if they really want to enshrine Vattell as the sole constitutional model for NBC, they need to get an amendment passed, Article 5 convention or something. Never seems to get a response. Oh well.
Peace,
SR