Give Us Liberty

Natural born citizen status is inherited – it’s not bestowed by the Constitution or Acts of Congress

1. Neither Obama, Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz are natural born citizens. At the times they were born, their Fathers were not citizens. Location of birth is irrelevant. Those who insist that a person must be born within the US point to Section 212 of Vattel.  But one must read all that Vattel wrote on the subject and which is contained in Sections 213-217.

A “natural born” citizen inherits his citizenship from his parents. Just as he inherits his eye and hair color from them, so he inherits his citizenship status. He is “born” with the hair and eye color his parents gave him, and he is “born” with the citizenship status they gave him. No provision in the Constitution made him a Citizen – no Act of Congress made him a Citizen – just as no provision in the Constitution or Act of Congress determined his eye or hair color. His citizenship, eye color, and hair color are all inherited from his parents. THAT’s what a natural born citizen is. READ all of the sections on this which Vattel wrote:  By the law of nature alone, children follow the condition of their fathers; the place of birth produces no change in this particular.   In my first paper, you can find the links to Vattel and other original source documents illustrating the original intent of “natural born citizen”.

2. Our first generation of Presidents were all born as subjects of the British King. There were no US citizens until July 4, 1776 when we proclaimed our Independence.  Art. II, Sec. 1, clause 5 contains a grandfather clause which permitted our first batch of Presidents to qualify. They were citizens at the time of the Adoption of our Constitution.

3. It appears that both of Donald Trump’s Parents were Citizens at the time he was born.  It is irrelevant that his Mother was an immigrant:  She came here from Scotland; and later became a US Citizen during 1942 – several years before Donald was born.  Donald is a natural born citizen eligible to be President.  [But because of the doctrine of coverture which prevailed at the time of our Framing, the status of Donald’s Mother is probably irrelevant.]

4. I found another article on this topic which is excellent: http://www.latimes.com/…/la-oe-lee-is-ted-cruz-eligible-to-…

5. Our Country would be so much better off if people would stop spouting off about this subject until after they become well-informed. And they can’t become well-informed until they have studied this carefully using original source documents and read all the original source documents I cite in my first paper.

And you must detach the result you want from your thinking when you are studying. TRUTH sheds its own Light – and you will NEVER get that Light until you love TRUTH above all things including the outcome you want.  I am well aware of the disgraceful cases where peoples’ views on this issue are determined by whom THEY want for President.

Be sure to read the short article in the LA Times.  The law professor author discusses the 3 ways of reading our Constitution:

• original intent (yours truly);
• textualism (the words mean what they mean today not what they meant when our Constitution was drafted & ratified);
• it’s a living, breathing, evolving Constitution which means whatever the Judges, or whoever has the power, says it means.

Which are you?  Think hard about the ramifications of each position before you decide.

Jan 17, 2016

Postscript added Jan 18, 2016:

People are confused about the effect of Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment.  I’ll explain:

There is a difference between:

• a “natural born citizen” (who inherits his citizenship status from his parents by the “laws of nature” alone – like eye color); and

• someone who becomes a “citizen” by operation of a man-made Proclamation or law such as the Declaration of Independence, a clause in the Constitution, or an Act of Congress.

One of the purposes of Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment was to extend citizenship to freed slaves.  That generation of freed slaves became Citizens by operation of a man-made law:  the 14th Amendment.  So they became Citizens, but they were not “natural born” citizens, because they weren’t “born” as citizens from parents who were citizens.

However, after that first generation of former slaves became citizens,  their children were “natural born” citizens because they were born of citizens.

Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment has nothing to do with “natural born citizens”, i.e., those who are born of parents who are already citizens.

Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment has to do with the creation of new Citizens by operation of man-made law.

Under some peoples’ misreadings of Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment, illegal alien muslims could come here and drop a baby and the baby could later be President!   Our Framers didn’t want that! They wanted only people who were born of parents who were already citizens to be eligible to be President.   Andsupposedly we would have standards for deciding who qualified for Citizenship….