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Searching for “natural born citizen”

US Constitution

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.

Commenters here may suggest additions to the list.

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Defining Natural Born Citizen

Hollister v. Soetoro

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…)

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Natural Born in Georgia

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…)

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Kerchner v. Obama and the WHOLE COUNTRY (Part 2)

Kerchner v. Obama

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…)

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FAQ on Obama’s Hidden Birth Certificate

Sometimes I thing there ought to be a law against cutting and pasting, and a prime example is what is claimed to be: The internet’s most comprehensive compilation of issues regarding the birth of Barack Obama : FAQ in Obama’s Hidden Birth Certificate. (more…)

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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:

NBC for Dummies

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…)

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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…)

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