Give Us Liberty

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY RE: ‘NATURAL BORN CITIZEN

April 13, 2011, by Neil B. Turner
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution of the United States

Requires that only a ‘natural born Citizen’ be eligible for the Office of President (and Vice President)

I. ‘Natural Born Citizenship’ as required and defined by the Constitution.

· Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution says: No Person except a natural born Citizen, … shall be eligible to the Office of President;

· The last sentence of the Twelfth (XII) Amendment (ratified in 1804) says: But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

‘Natural born Citizen’ is a condition at birth (jus soli and jus sanguinis). It cannot be changed by new statutes and laws, nor by Senate Resolutions like SR511 for Senator John McCain (a Congressional act of Treason to the Constitution).

‘Natural born Citizen’-ship is specified and defined in the Constitution:

1. Article II, Section 1:5 says that only a ‘natural born Citizen’ shall be eligible to the Office of President;

2. Article I, Section 8 says that Congress (under the authority granted by the People) shall have the power to… define and punish… Offenses against the Law of Nations;

3. The Law of Nations says that:

a. ‘The natives, or natural born citizens, are those born in the country (jus soli), of parents who are citizens’;

b. ‘As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers (jus sanguinis), and succeed to all their rights’;

c. ‘The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children’;

d. ‘To be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.’

II. ‘Natural Born Citizenship’ as defined and adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the United States.

4 Supreme Court Cases define ‘natural born Citizen’:

1. The Venus, 12 U.S. 8 Cranch 253 253 (1814)

Justice Livingston, who wrote the unanimous decision, quoted the entire §212nd paragraph from the French edition of Vattel:
“The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives or indigenes are those born in the country of parents who are citizens. Society not being able to subsist and to perpetuate itself but by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights.”

2. Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 3 Pet. 242 242 (1830)

Justice Story, who gave the ruling, cites the principle of citizenship enshrined in his definition of a “natural born citizen”:

… she might well be deemed under the circumstances of this case to hold the citizenship of her father, for children born in a country, continuing while under age in the family of the father, partake of his national character as a citizen of that country.

3. Minor v. Happersett , 88 U.S. 162 (1875)

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in that year, wrote the majority opinion, in which he stated:

The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.

4. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)

In this case, Wong Kim Ark, the son of 2 resident Chinese aliens, claimed U.S. Citizenship and was vindicated by the court on the basis of the 14th Amendment. In this case the Justice Gray gave the opinion of the court. On p. 168-9 of the record, he cites approvingly the decision in Minor vs. Happersett:

At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children, born in a country of parents who were its citizens, became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.

This (flawed, to many) decision extended citizenship (only) to all born in the country (excepting those born of ambassadors and foreign armies, etc.); but it did not extend the meaning of the term ‘natural born citizen’.

CONCLUSION

Finally it should be noted, that to define a term is to indicate the category or class of things which it signifies. In this sense, the Supreme Court of the United States has never applied the term “natural born citizen” to any other category than “those born in the country of parents who are citizens thereof”.
Hence every U.S. Citizen must accept this definition or categorical designation, and fulfill his constitutional duties accordingly. No member of Congress, no judge of the Federal Judiciary, no elected or appointed official in Federal or State government has the right to use any other definition; and if he does, he is acting unlawfully, because unconstitutionally.

This requirement can only be changed by a Constitutional Amendment, which has yet to occur. The 14^th Amendment does not mention ‘natural born Citizen’, and is therefore unrelated to and has no bearing on the Constitutional requirement for the Office of the President.

· Since Obama has repeatedly identified his natural birth father as Barack Hussein Obama I of Kenya, who was at no time in his life a citizen of the United States, we do not need a Hawaiian birth certificate, and;

· Since Obama has already admitted that he is ineligible by a court ordered admission of ineligibility^[1], and;

· Unless it is proven (by DNA tests) that Barack Hussein Obama Sr. is not his biological father, and instead a U.S Citizen - such as Frank Marshall Davis or Malcolm-X, or someone else;

then the person occupying the Office of President and Commander in Chief, Barack Hussein Obama (alias Barry Soetoro), is NOT a natural born Citizen, and all we need is a leader who will insure enforcement of the supreme law of the land, The Constitution of the United States of America. No one has shown the fortitude, leadership, or commitment to the Constitution so far. We do not need any more cowards; we need a leader with a voice – NOW!

Submitted by:

Neil B. Turner Citizens for the Constitution

Carlsbad, CA

NBTurner@Earthlink.net

To download documentation: 4 Supreme Court Cases Define Natural Born Citizen: http://www.scribd.com/doc/52966220/4-Supreme-Court-Cases-Define-Natural-Born-Citizen

^[1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/45873160/OBAMA-ADMISSION-OF-INELIGIBILITY-in-COURT-CONNERAT