I have come to realize that there are two debates on the question of presidential eligibility and the definition of “natural born citizenship”, and some of the more thoughtful people on each side are debating different things. One debate thesis may be summed up this way:

The Constitution does not define “natural born citizen”, nor is it defined in legislation. The U. S. Supreme Court has never decided the question of the relationship of parentage to natural born citizenship. The uncertainty should be resolved.

The second debate thesis might be summed up this way:

Based on common law principles, and supported by numerous authorities, one may conclude with a high degree of certainty that natural born citizens of the United States are those born within its borders except the children of ambassadors.

Folks like Ken Dunbar and Stephen Tonchen (the author of the piece to be discussed here) are debating the former, and this web site is largely geared towards investigating the latter. If debating the first question, then one might say that Barack Obama’s eligibility is “unproven”, but when debating second one will conclude that it is “proven”.

I have no strong objection to the first thesis, but because I affirm the second, I don’t find that there is any urgency towards a judicial resolution of a question that has already been decided by force of argument, the same argument that would be made to the Court and that would certainly prevail. Whichever the case, I find language like “usurper” to be totally irresponsible. (more…)