Conservatives in this country have lost the majority of their rights by accepting the same sort of unConstitutional incrementalism when it suited them only to have it come back and haunt them, so, keep up the good work.
It’s only applicable to Republicans, Libertarians and Independents. Democrats are exempt from such restrictive constitutional requirements. God help our once great country.
Unfortunately, the founding fathers didn’t spell this out. Despite what Cruz says about the subject, it has never been tested I n the courts and even if it is, there is nothing in the Constitution that defines it one way or the other. My guess is it will never be ruled on by the Supreme Court and any U.S. Citizen will still be allowed to run and be elected as President.
Because 0bama.
Ted Cruz being on the ballot in Illinois a bastion of liberalism for pete sake, was challenged. Claiming he isn’t eligible because not a NBC.
Well, of course he is, yashcheritsy, and all of it has been looked into and parsed to a fare the well.
Preponderance of evidence looked at by legal beagles for years and vast preponderance agree that the child of an American citizen who happens to be birthed while that citizen is another country is a citizen at birth. They do not need to renounce any other citizenship, they do not need to go through a naturalization process.
They are born, they are an American.
I knew all of what is now known about Ted Cruz when I supported him for Texas’ junior Senator. I knew THEN I was voting in an American to office to represent me. Yet here you are years later and he’s running for POTUS and you still pedal that he’s not an American.
Oh, almost forgot, the Illinois court has ruled him eligible for the ballot there and yes, he fits the qualification of NBC.
Parrot your line until the cows come home as we sometimes say in Texas.
He still is, and you’re still wrong.
BULL CHEESE.
Purists can strictly abide by the Constitution if they like and kick Cruz and Rubio to the door.
If they like.
And as they do - the OPEN the door to Hillary or Sanders.
So tell me again how the NBC requirement is that important?
Since everyone who was a citizen at the time of adoption is dead, we can remove the grandfather clause wording. We are left with:
“No Person except a natural born Citizen [...] shall be eligible to the Office of President;”
Why does the Constitution speak of “citizens” and separately of “natural born citizens”? Why is the word “natural” inserted? It is a matter of allegiance.
A person can be a “citizen” if he or she was a citizen or subject in some other country first but came here and met the naturalization requirements. Also, if one is the offspring of a citizen and a non-citizen, then one is a US citizen. However, in both these cases it can be argued that the person might choose allegiance to his former country or to the country of the foreign-born parent or at least the allegiance might be considered divided. That is, there is no natural allegiance of the offspring to one or the other parent’s country. After all, a child of a US citizen and a citizen of another country is just as much a citizen of either. It is this divided or alienated allegiance that the Constitutional provision is designed to prohibit.
If, however, both of one’s parents are themselves US citizens, then one is a “citizen” as well as a “natural born citizen”. The “natural born citizen” is one who at birth has no natural allegiance to any other country and the Framers felt could be trusted to be loyal to the US and not act as a foreign agent. [footnote: Also, in their time, the rules of royal succession held sway throughout much of the world and the Founders wished to forestall any potential claims by the crowned heads of Europe or their scions to sovereignty over the US.]
Note that native born is not the same as natural born. Native born simply refers to the place of one’s birth, i.e., of one’s nativity. The term does not speak to the legal circumstances of a birth, merely to its location.
Correct. It’s not a mere technicality. IMHO, the core issue facing this country at this time is whether or not we’ll even have a country at all. The Presidency is a key piece of that. And no, Cruz is not eligible.
The Founding Fathers wanted someone who was culturally AMERICAN, raised as an American.
Obama, no matter where he was born, is culturally Indonesian moslem, imbued with those ideas in his formative years.
Ping for later...
Rep. John A. Bingham commenting on Section 1992 of U.S. Revised Statutes (1866) said:
it means every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.
John A. Bingham (Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866))
John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815-March 19, 1900) was an American Republican congressman from the U.S. state of Ohio, judge advocate in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a prosecutor in the impeachment trials of Andrew Johnson. He is also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The first section of the second article of the Constitution uses the language, a natural-born citizen. It thus assumes that citizenship may be acquired by birth. Undoubtedly, this language of the Constitution was used in reference to that principle of public law, well understood in this country at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, which referred citizenship to the place of birth.
Justice Curtis in his dissenting opinion of the Dred Scott decision and speaking specifically of natural born citizens and article II, section I, clause 5
It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. Birth however derives its force sometimes from place and sometimes from parentage, but in general place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States; it will therefore be unnecessary to investigate any other.
James Madison
The doctrine of the common law is that every man born within its jurisdiction is a subject of the sovereign of the country where he is born, and allegiance is not personal to the sovereign in the extent that has been contended for; it is due to him in his political capacity of sovereign of the territory where the person owing the allegiance as born.
Kilham v. Ward 2 Mass. 236, 26 (1806)
As the President is required to be a native citizen of the United States. Natives are all persons born within the jurisdiction and allegiance of the United States.
James Kent, COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW (1826)
That provision in the constitution which requires that the president shall be a native-born citizen (unless he were a citizen of the United States when the constitution was adopted) is a happy means of security against foreign influence, A very respectable political writer makes the following pertinent remarks upon this subject. Prior to the adoption of the constitution, the people inhabiting the different states might be divided into two classes: natural born citizens, or those born within the state, and aliens, or such as were born out of it.
St. George Tucker, BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES (1803)
Allegiance is nothing more than the tie or duty of obedience of a subject to the sovereign under whose protection he is, and allegiance by birth is that which arises from being born within the dominions and under the protection of a particular sovereign. Two things usually concur to create citizenship: first, birth locally within the dominions of the sovereign, and secondly, birth within the protection and obedience, or, in other words, within the allegiance of the sovereign.That the father and mother of the demandant were British born subjects is admitted. If he was born before 4 July, 1776, it is as clear that he was born a British subject. If he was born after 4 July, 1776, and before 15 September, 1776 [the date the British occupied New York], he was born an American citizen, whether his parents were at the time of his birth British subjects or American citizens. Nothing is better settled at the common law than the doctrine that the children even of aliens born in a country while the parents are resident there under the protection of the government and owing a temporary allegiance thereto are subjects by birth.
Justice Story, concurring opinion,Inglis v. Sailorsâ Snug Harbor, 3 Pet. 99, 155,164. (1830)
The country where one is born, how accidental soever his birth in that place may have been, and although his parents belong to another country, is that to which he owes allegiance. Hence the expression natural born subject or citizen, & all the relations thereout growing. To this there are but few exceptions, and they are mostly introduced by statutes and treaty regulations, such as the children of seamen and ambassadors born abroad, and the like.
Leake v. Gilchrist, 13 N.C. 73 (N.C. 1829)
Therefore every person born within the United States, its territories or districts, whether the parents are citizens or aliens, is a natural born citizen in the sense of the Constitution, and entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to that capacity.
William Rawle, A View of the Constitution of the United States, pg. 86 (1829)
The right of citizenship never descends in the legal sense, either by the common law or under the common naturalization acts. It is incident to birth in the country, or it is given personally by statute. The child of an alien, if born in the country, is as much a citizen as the natural born child of a citizen, and by operation of the same principle
Horace Binney, American Law Register, 2 Amer.Law Reg.193, 203, 204, 206, 208 (February 1854).
That all natural born citizens, or persons born within the limits of the United States, and all aliens subject to the restrictions hereinafter mentioned, may inherit real estate and make their pedigree by descent from any ancestor lineal or collateral.
January 28, 1838, Acts of the State of Tennessee passed at the General Assembly, pg. 266 (1838)
The term citizen, was used in the constitution as a word, the meaning of which was already established and well understood. And the constitution itself contains a direct recognition of the subsisting common law principle, in the section which defines the qualification of the President. The only standard which then existed, of a natural born citizen, was the rule of the common law, and no different standard has been adopted since. Suppose a person should be elected President who was native born, but of alien parents, could there be any reasonable doubt that he was eligible under the constitution? I think not.
Lynch vs. Clarke (NY 1844)
Every person, then, born in the country, and that shall have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States, is eligible to the office of president.
Lysander Spooner, The Unconstitionality of Slavery, pg. 119 (1845)
It is the very essence of the condition of a natural born citizen, of one who is a member of the state by birth within and under it, that his rights are not derived from the mere will of the state.
The New Englander, Vol. III, pg. 434 (1845)
This is called becoming naturalized; that is, becoming entitled to all the rights and privileges of natural born citizens, or citizens born in this country.
Andrew White Young, First lessons in Civil Government, pg. 82 (1856).
The Constitution itself does not make the citizens, (it is. in fact,made by them.) It only intends and recognizes such of them as are naturalâ€â€home-bornâ€â€and provides for the naturalization of such of them as were alienâ€â€foreign-bornâ€â€making the latter, as far as nature will allow, like the former.
Attorney General Bates, Opinion of Citizenship, (1862)
All persons born in the allegiance of the king are natural-born subjects, and all persons born in the allegiance of the United States are natural-born citizens. Birth and allegiance go together. Such is the rule of the common law, and it is the common law of this country, as well as of England.
Justice Swayne, United States v. Rhodes, 1 Abbott, US 28 (Cir. Ct. Ky 1866)
Natural-born Citizens, those that are born within the jurisdiction of a national government; i.e., in its territorial limits, or those born of citizens, temporarily residing abroad.
William Cox Cochran, The student's law lexicon: a dictionary of legal words and phrases : with appendices, Pg. 185 (1888)
Citizens are either natural-born or naturalized. One who is born in the United States or under its jurisdiction is a natural-born citizen without reference to the nationality of his parents. Their presence here constitutes a temporary allegiance, sufficient to make a child a citizen.
Theodore Dwight, Edward Dwight, Commentaries on the law of persons and personal property, pg. 125 (1894)
The notion that there is any common law principle to naturalize the children born in foreign countries, of native-born American father and mother, father or mother, must be discarded. There is not, and never was, any such common law principle.
Binney on Alienigenae, 14, 20; 2 Amer.Law Reg.199, 203
Instead of going on and on and on and on about this on the internet, why doesn’t somebody take it to court? If they can even find one that will waste their time on this.
Obama proves the rule.
Clearly, it’s up to us- each of us, to guard the basis of our country. Especially, since all three branches of government are failing.
But then, it’s always been up to us (government of the people, by the people, and for the people).
We’ve failed, too, to do our part & keep our God Given rights & freedoms intact. We’ve turned it over to lawyers & those with only their own interests in mind to have their way with those rights & freedoms- excluding us.
Why is the natural born citizen requirement important?
If you are asking this question please open your wallet, remove your voter registration card, and tear it up because you are to stupid to be trusted with adult responsibilities.
Obama is a perfect example. His mannerisms, personality, disdain of American patriotism & sovereignty, and policies just scream foreigner, beholden to foreign interests.
Having someone as president who is nominally a natural born citizen, but in reality a tool of global interests is no guarantee of sovereignty.
Is there any doubt Paul Ryan is a NBC? Is there any doubt he is a tool of global corporations?
Excellent article!
Foreign influence is already here, thanks in big part to the politicians’ intentional violation of the immigration laws, resulting in huge illegal aliens invasions, culminating in the invasion of USA by one obama, closet muslim and USA-hater...........all because the politicians and voters chose to ignore the nbc requirement for the presidency!
Now they try to convince us that there is no worthy nbc to lead USA, and we should welcome those with divided loyalty (such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio) to be our president and CIC.
Way to go!? Wonder why they don’t just outright hand over USA to the Puerto Ricans, or the Cubans, or the Iranians, or the Russians, or the Koreans.....or the globalists ?
I have to go to bed — I work graveyard, so I cannot read all the posts tonight (although I will tomorrow when I get home). So please indulge me ...
There is a poster here at FR that recently posted one of the pages of the document handed to immigrants to study. It described the requirements to be POTUS, including the born on US soil and of two citizen parents thing. I hope this individual posts it again. Evidently, it is published by the DOJ!
I am troubled by the Cruz thing, as I have stated before. But I am FAR, FAR more troubled by the Rubio thing — this is downright dangerous, this one. At least Obama and Cruz had one citizen parent at birth — Rubio’s parents did not bother becoming citizens until years later. His situation would completely dissolve the difference between natural born citizen and just plain old birthright citizenship. If legal US status of parents (but not citizens) vs illegal status of parents (again, not citizens) are blurred (citizen vs. non citizen parents), I fear we are lost once and for all. This means all the medical tourism, the ElChapos (anchor baby kids), Bin Laden’s (anchor baby kids)..pays off for people who have not a nickel’s worth of loyalty to America. And yet they will be able to have children who can grow up, run for office & send American young people to war? Are you freaking kidding me?
I would like to see, upon the conclusion of the 2016 election, a serious somber bi-partisan group of legislators work together on this. They will need to include the finest historical scholars, both sides of the aisle, and determine a proper and legal definition of this term, once and for all.
Because we have people in office advocating almost unlimited immigration and others wanting refugees from as far as the eye can see, courtesy of the Middle East.
We’re going to need to nail down a solid definition of who’s who.
Ted Cruz was born in Canada into a family of Cubans.
How does he feel/what would he do about the hoards of illegal alien Cubans flooding across our border that will cost us billions- with a debt of already $19 trillion?
Is THIS all we got for God’s sake?
We need an AMERICAN who loves his country.
Didn’t we learn anything from the foreigner Obama and his obscure past?
Other countries must be laughing at us..can’t even find an American to run.