Searching for “natural born citizen”
US Constitution
Not many folks have spent more time than I searching the Internet and WestLaw for keywords including “natural born citizen”. You can see the results of such activity on pages like my The Great Mother of All Natural Born Citizen Quotation Pages and Tes’s SCOTUS & “Natural Born Citizen” – A Compendium. While that’s useful, finding short paragraphs with keywords is not the way to understand the subject in depth. Even those who disagree with me fall into the same pattern, for example, citing E. de Vattel without reading the chapters that follow.
To really understand what’s going on one must read those works where the subject is developed: this happens in some scholarly works, and in some imp0rtant court decisions. Here are some useful texts, by far not all.
- The United States Constitution
- The Congressional Debates on the 14th Amendment
- Lynch v Clarke (Supreme Court of New York)
- US v Wong Kim Ark (Supreme Court of the US)
- Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253
- Rogers v Bellei (Supreme Court of the US)
- The Development of American Citizenship, 1608-1870
- The Natural-Born Citizen Clause and Presidential Eligibility: An Approach for Resolving Two Hundred Years of Uncertainty – Yale Law Journal 1988
- The Origins and Interpretation of the Presidential Eligibility Clause in the U.S. Constitution: Why Did the Founding Fathers Want the President To Be a “Natural Born Citizen” and What Does this Clause Mean for Foreign-Born Adoptees?
- Defining “American” Birthright Citizenship and the Original Understanding of the 14th Amendment, James C. Ho.
- Rawle’s View of the Constitution
- Citizenship in the United States, Frederick Van Dyne (1904)
- The Justiciability of Eligibility: May Courts Decide Who Can Be President? [HTML] [PDF] Daniel P. Tokaji, The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
- Originalism and the Natural Born Citizen Clause [HTML] [PDF] Lawrence B. Solum, University of Illinois Law School
- Attorney General Edward Bates, Opinion of Attorney General Bates on Citizenship (1852).
Commenters here may suggest additions to the list.
Defining Natural Born Citizen
Natural born citizen
While coming tantalizingly close, no US Court has ever decided the definition of “natural born citizen”. The term was not explained in the debates of the Constitutional Convention, nor the state legislatures when it was ratified, nor by individual framers in their speeches, letters or papers. Where do we go for a definition–to an 18th century Swiss philosopher–to an appeal to our shared prejudices?
The US Constitution is replete with terms that it doesn’t define: citizen, impeachment, felonies, treason, bribery, bankruptcy, warrants, grand jury and attainder. These are, however, familiar terms in the common law. The Supreme Court wrote in the case of Smith v. Alabama (1888) 124 U.S. 465:
There is no common law of the United States, in the sense of a national customary law, distinct from the common law of England as adopted by the several States each for itself, applied as its local law, and subject to such alteration as may be provided by its own statutes. . . . There is, however, one clear exception to the statement that there is no national common law. The interpretation of the Constitution of the United States is necessarily influenced by the fact that its provisions are framed in the language of the English common law, and are to be read in the light of its history. (more…)
Natural Born in Georgia
Georgia
I spent three hours last night reading obscure textbooks, popular guides to government, US Constitution legal commentary, collections of state constitutions and charters and debates held at the state level on ratification of the Constitution from the 17th and 18th centuries. I did not find one hint that “natural born citizen” meant anything more than “citizen at birth”, and further the idea of “citizen at birth” was expansive, including both those born in the territory, and those born of citizens anywhere. (more…)
Kerchner v. Obama and the WHOLE COUNTRY (Part 2)
Kerchner v. Obama
Continued from Kerchner v. Obama and the WHOLE COUNTRY. [This article has been updated 5/10/09 to reflect additional research.]
Once again we take up the painful task of reading the lawsuit that reads like a smear campaign, Kerchner v. Obama et al. The following sections are numbered per Apuzzo’s second (longer) amended complaint.
Points 71-74 state the well-accepted fact that Barack Obama’s father was not a United States Citizen. President Obama has himself acknowledged this on his own web site. (more…)
Natural Born Citizen for Dummies
Much is being blogged about natural born citizenship since Barack Obama ran for president. There are lengthy legal-sounding arguments and long quotations from books. If you want an advanced degree in Natural Born Citizen, there’s an incredible and growing repository of facts and documents over at What’s Your Evidence? and The Great Mother of All Natural Born Citizenship Quotation Pages. The Wikipedia article is good too. But for folks who would like just the basics, Obama Conspiracy Theories Presents:
As seen on TV
As seen on TV
Natural Born Citizen For Dummies
The Constitution
The Constitution of the United States uses the phrase “natural born citizen” but doesn’t define it. In fact the Constitution does not even define citizen except to say that some are “natural born” and some are “naturalized”. In the beginning, citizenship was defined by the States. (more…)
Dead Attorney General declares “Obama native born”
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Citation: 10 U.S. Op. Atty. Gen. 328, 1862 WL 1393 (U.S.A.G.)
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United States Attorney General
CITIZENSHIP OF CHILDREN BORN IN THE UNITED STATES OF ALIEN PARENTS.
September 1, 1862.
*328 A child born in the United States of alien parents, who have never been naturalized, is, by the fact of birth a native-born citizen of the United States, entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship.
Hon. WM. H. SEWARD
Secretary of State. (more…)
