From naturalborncitizen: Presidential Eligibility Is Not A Constitutionally Protected “Civil Right”.

Posted on August 9, 2009 by naturalborncitizen

There’s a false argument floating around which goes something like this:

We should not discriminate against non-natural born citizens by taking away their right to be President since all citizens have equal civil rights.

The problem with that argument is that Presidential eligibility is not a protected “civil right” guaranteed by the Constitution to any citizen. In fact, not all natural born citizens can be President. Only those who are 35 years old and have been US residents for 14 years can be President.

If being eligible to be President was a protected “civil right”, it would require Constitutional protection across the board to all citizens. We couldn’t legally enforce the 35 year age requirement to be President since that would discriminate against all citizens 34 years old and younger.

After all, 34 year old citizens are not supposed to have less civil rights than 35 year old citizens.

QUESTION: Why has the 35 year POTUS eligibility requirement been free from attack all these years and election cycles?

ANSWER: To be President and Commander In Chief is not a protected right of citizenship.

The framers protected all of our rights as best they could by excluding many citizens from Presidential eligibility via Article 2 Section 1 requirements. Exclusion was the desired outcome.

It’s a loaded false emotional argument which tries to convince us that the natural born citizen POTUS qualification is somehow against the American way. The children of immigrants from all nations may become President – as long as – prior to birth – their parents became naturalized US citizens by following our laws and taking an oath to our nation and Constitution. There is nothing wrong with requiring such a standard. It is the best protection for all of our civil rights.