This is the clearest explanation I’ve read in a long while. I found it in the comment section of this American Thinker piece.
“See if I can get this covered in one response…
RE: The Founders feared usurpation of the young republic by foreign interests, and erected a number of safeguards. Foremost among these was article II, section I – the natural born citizen clause – which clearly states that the vice-president and president must be American citizens, born of parents who were native to this country, i.e., born on U.S. soil.
As far back as 1795, the U.S. gov’t has recognized that children born to citizens abroad were considered natural born citizens. Furthermore, the applicable part of the law states….
(c) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (a) of this section, a person born, after December 23, 1952, outside the United States and out of wedlock shall be held to have acquired at birth the nationality status of his mother, if the mother had the nationality of the United States at the time of such person’s birth, and if the mother had previously been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year.
I keep seeing references to what the Founders meant but even Hamilton did not initially reference “natural born citizens.” Opinions can differ on the interpretation but I have yet to see where the Congress is not authorized to provide further clarification on what a “natural born citizen” is. As it stands, they have declared that Stanley Ann Dunham’s status as a U.S. citizen in August 1961 makes Barack Obama a U.S. citizen regardless of his paternity or place of birth. You can argue woulda, coulda, shoulda but the debate is going nowhere in a court of law.
RE: To be a natural born citizen both parents should be long-standing citizens. The reason was so there could be no question of loyalty.
I think we can pretty much agree that your parentage is a piss-poor loyalty test. Just about the entire Democrat delegation in both houses of Congress should be dismissed on loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and I doubt many of them weren’t born to two parents who were natural born citizens.
RE: It may well be that modern-day Americans no longer see a need for the NBC clause and feel that it should be overturned. OK, fine – but if that is the case, do it the right way – by amending the constitution – and not by the use of dirty tricks, legislative fiat and the like.
What bothers me and others of similar views is the manner in which Obama ascended to his present position – via the use of fraud, disinformation, propaganda, purposeful exploitation of loopholes in the constitution, and outright lying and deception.
Absolutely agree with the above. While I truly believe that Obama is hiding some explosive secret concerning his birth, I don’t think it is eligibility to be President per the citizen ship clause. Expanding on that, I’m not sure that whatever lie he’s hiding from the public with the help of a biased and complicit media actually disqualifies him. Unfortunately, politicians lie and they always have. That’s incumbent on the voters to be more engaged and learn the truth. Sad to say, that’s not happening in today’s society.
Finally, once again, my point is not to convince you of my position. Only to point out that just because others (commentators, pundits, other conservatives like myself) do not feel as passionately about the issue does not make them “naïve” or sellouts looking to promote their own agenda. We’re looking at the topic and coming to a conclusion that we’d rather point out his incompetence in several areas…or the corruption rampant in his administration…or the hypocrisy in his treatment by the media, etc., etc. If you want to keep pressing the issue, please do. Even if I think you’re wrong about his citizenship status, maybe one day somebody will investigate it enough to discover the real truth.”
You ABSOLUTELY MUST Andrea!, it is vitally important and still is the most efficient and effective way of removing the Tyrant and undoing all of his misdeeds. You see HE is the exact example of WHY the Second Amendment was written.
There is a great deal of terrific articles on the web, but this one is relatively short and explicit. Please read it, it will get you more interested, and you might see what we are so stubborn about!
Birthers are right…from March 26, 1790
May 11, 2010—On March 26, 1790 the 1st Congress of the United States, session II, Ch.4 thought it necessary to define precisely what an Article II citizen was to prevent those not legally defined as an Article II citizen from running for, or winning the office of, President of the United States since as a non-citizen, they are not eligible to do either. In the records of the 1st Congress, second session, Congress enacted the guidelines which determined that people not born here while what became the United States was under the thumb of England, who applied for, and were granted citizenship rights, would be construed as a “naturalized” citizens as would any children with them who were under the age of 21 years. These children may have been born in this country, but because their parents were not natural born they were also deemed to be naturalized, not natural born, citizens. They had voting rights, and the right to run for Congress, but not the office of President. I would like you to pause for a moment and think about the pregnant illegals that steal into the United States specifically to have anchor babies here. In the mid-1930s, social progressive Franklin D. Roosevelt decreed, by Presidential Proclamation, that they are construed to be natural born, allowing their parents to use their “anchor status” to get green cards which allowed them to stay in the country. The most prominent illegal in this country today has two anchor children, and a natural born anchor wife. His name is Barack Obama. If his name sounds familiar it’s because he’s the illegal alien who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania in Washington, DC. According to the law enacted by the 1st Congress, session II, Ch. 4, whether he was born in the State of Hawaii or not, he is ineligible to run for, or be elected to, the office of President of the United States because the law stated” “…the children of citizens (both parents) of the United States, shall be considered natural born citizens; provided that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: provided also, that no person heretofore proscribed by any State, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an act of the legislature of that State in which such a person was proscribed. (a) Approved, March 26, 1790.” What does that mean? It means the father must be a be a citizen to transmit citizenship to a child of his seed who was born in this country. If he is a natural born citizen, he will transmit that right to his offspring. If he is a naturalized citizen, he transmits that right. He cannot transmit a right he does not possess. Thus, if he is not a citizen of the United States, he cannot transmit citizenship rights of any type to his offspring since he has none to bequeath. Which means any illegal alien cannot transmit US citizenship rights to an illegal offspring since they lack citizenship. The parents, and their US-born offspring are legally subject to deportation.
Barack Hussein Obama’s father was born in Kenya and was never a citizen of the United States, thus he could not transmit citizenship rights to his son—except Kenyan citizenship rights. Which he did. England claims Barack Obama is a citizen of Kenya. He is also a citizen of Indonesia since his step father, Lolo Soetero, who legally changed Obama’s name to Barry Soetoro, renounced both any claim Obama had to US citizenship through his mother, or Kenyan citizenship through his father. Obama traveled on an Indonesian passport which suggests the international community viewed him not as an American but an Indonesian. As did Occidental College which, it now appears, gave him a foreign exchange student scholarship.
While Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama’s mother, was a naturalized citizen, under federal law she would have had to be 19-years of age when she gave birth to be able to transmit citizenship rights to a foreign-born son. She was 18-years, 8-months and 5-days old when her son was born on August 4, 1961. Because his father was not a natural citizen of the United States he could only transmit the type of citizenship he possessed. Since he was not a US citizen, he could not even transmit naturalized citizen status. And, since his mother was 3-months and 25-days shy of being able to transmit natural birth status to her first born son, any legal status is in question even if Obama was born in Hawaii—which the effort, and money being spent by Obama to conceal his birth records, together with statements by Kenyan Minister of Lands, James Orengo and Kenyan Minister Bonny Khalwale who claim Obama is native born In Kenya, suggests that the only actual, legitimate long form, birth doctor-affirmed birth certificate Obama has is Kenyan. And thus, even though US law was changed in 1986, he would at least have had a citizenship argument even though he could still not have gotten around the lack of standing of his father to qualify as a natural born citizen. The law was further diluted in 1994, 33 years after his birth. But, once again, too little, too late
Thank you that is the best and most complete explaination I’ve seen on this subject.
Okay, then I have to bring up his legal adoption by his step father in Indonesia. At that time, you could not have dual citizenship which means that he lost his US citizenship. When was he naturalized? What passport did he use to go to Pakistan that was closed to US citizens in the 80’s? Did he go to school as a foreign student? Why did he and Michelle lose their law degree?
Obama was not adopted—which requires the action of a district court in Indonesia (or in Hawaii)—and no court papers have been shown. Obama never lost his US citizenship; in fact, a US child CANNOT lose citizenship—-and the Indonesian government has said that Obama was never a citizen of Indonesia. (Don’t believe me? Well you can call the Indonesian Embassy in Washington to check—ask for the press officer.) Neither Michelle nor Obama “lost” their law degrees. Both asked for them to be voluntarily suspended, so that they did not have to perform pro bono work and did not have to pay the annual fees. Any US citizen could enter Pakistan using an ordinary US passport (which Obama had since he returned from Indonesia to Hawaii ALONE and since there is no record of his having applied for a US visa, which he would have had to have done if he was using any passport other than a US passport). In fact, US magazines ran travel articles recommending visiting “Scenic Lahore.” Oh, and Obama did not apply as a foreign student because, duh, he was not a foreign student, and in any case, the story that he applied as a foreign student COMES FROM AN APRIL FOOL’S ARTICLE originally posted on April 1, 2009.
Obama was born in Hawaii, which has been shown overwhelmingly. There is his short form and long form birth certificates, and the repeated confirmation of them by the officials of both parties and the Index Data and the birth notices sent to the Hawaii papers by the DOH of Hawaii in 1961 and the teacher who wrote home (to her father, named Stanley, after hearing of the birth in Hawaii of a child to a woman named Stanley) and even Kapiolani Hospital (which BTW did exist at the time) has confirmed Obama’s birth there (want to see the two confirmations?)
And there isn’t even evidence that Obama’s mother had a passport in 1961—and very very few 18-year-olds did (and if birther sites were not trying to deliberately mislead they would have said that very few 18-year-olds had passports and that travel abroad by pregnant women in 1961 was EXTREMELY RARE). And birther sites lied when they said that Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said that he was born in Kenya. She never said any such thing. In fact, she said repeatedly in the taped interview that “he was born in Hawaii, where his father was studying at the time.” But birther sites simply did not quote her and cut off the tape recording just before she was asked “Where was he born?’
So Obama was born in Hawaii, meaning in the USA, on US soil. And the meaning of Natural Born Citizen comes from the common law and refers to the PLACE of birth, and the US Supreme Court ruled in the Wong Kim Ark case that EVERY child born on US soil except for the children of foreign diplomats and enemy invaders is a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.
“What is a natural born citizen? Clearly, someone born within the United States or one of its territories is a natural born citizen.” (Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on OCTOBER 5, 2004)–Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT).
“Under the longstanding English common-law principle of jus soli, persons born within the territory of the sovereign (other than children of enemy aliens or foreign diplomats) are citizens from birth. Thus, those persons born within the United States are “natural born citizens” and eligible to be President. Much less certain, however, is whether children born abroad of United States citizens are “natural born citizens” eligible to serve as President …”—- Edwin Meese, et al, THE HERITAGE GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION (2005) [Edwin Meese was Ronald Reagan’s attorney general, and the Heritage Foundation is a well-known Conservative organization.]
“Some birthers imagine that there is a difference between being a “citizen by birth” or a “native citizen” on the one hand and a “natural born” citizen on the other. “Eccentric” is too kind a word for this notion, which is either daft or dishonest. All three terms are identical in meaning.”—The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574322281597739634.html?KEYWORDS=obama+%22natural+born+citizen%22+minor+happersett)
“Every child born in the United States is a natural-born United States citizen except for the children of diplomats.”—Senator Lindsay Graham (December 11, 2008 letter to constituents)
Re: “While Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama’s mother, was a naturalized citizen, under federal law she would have had to be 19-years of age when she gave birth to be able to transmit citizenship rights to a foreign-born son. She was 18-years, 8-months and 5-days old when her son was born on August 4, 1961. ”
Answer: That applies ONLY to births OUTSIDE the USA. Obama was born IN the USA, in Hawaii. .