I actually got into an argument over this at work. There’s no definition included in the Constitution, and it’s only mentioned once: under Article II for the qualifications for President.
There are some who ascribe some pretty stringent standards on who can be “natural born.” You have to have been born on American soil and both your parents had to be American citizens. There’s an exhaustive examination of that view here.
The author pulls from the “Law of Nations,” which he says America’s founders relied upon when crafting the Constitution. The Law of Nations, he says, was based on common law. However, English common law was quite clear about the term “natural born subjects,” and these included individuals born within Britain to aliens (not the E.T. variety). This was recognized by English jurists, and was something quoted by the Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark:
By the common law of England, every person born within the dominions of the Crown, no matter whether of English or of foreign parents, and, in the latter case, whether the parents were settled or merely temporarily sojourning, in the country, was an English subject, save only the children of foreign ambassadors (who were excepted because their fathers carried their own nationality with them), or a child born to a foreigner during the hostile occupation of any part of the territories of England. No effect appears to have been given to descent as a source of nationality.
The 14th amendment goes a bit further, saying there are only two types of citizen: those born, and those naturalized.
Google “Annotated Constitution” for more (it’s an incredible resource for all your Constitution-related questions).
After doing some more work for a blog post I’ve been researching on this subject for the past two months, it seems clear that Obama’s eligibility for the office of President of the United States would be an incredible legal question, but only if he actually was born in Kenya.
I disagree Avelino. I don’t think he’d have been born a citizen if he was born in Kenya. His one U.S. citizen parent would not have been resident in the U.S. for five years after she turned 14 as required at that time. She was 18 when he was born.
What’s your thinking?
I actually agree with that, which is why I think it would have been an interesting legal case (had it been discovered after he was sworn in, etc). I don’t think he would have made it far if it had been discovered he was from Kenya during the campaign or before.
I actually got into an argument over this at work. There’s no definition included in the Constitution, and it’s only mentioned once: under Article II for the qualifications for President.
There are some who ascribe some pretty stringent standards on who can be “natural born.” You have to have been born on American soil and both your parents had to be American citizens. There’s an exhaustive examination of that view here.
The author pulls from the “Law of Nations,” which he says America’s founders relied upon when crafting the Constitution. The Law of Nations, he says, was based on common law. However, English common law was quite clear about the term “natural born subjects,” and these included individuals born within Britain to aliens (not the E.T. variety). This was recognized by English jurists, and was something quoted by the Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark:
The 14th amendment goes a bit further, saying there are only two types of citizen: those born, and those naturalized.
Google “Annotated Constitution” for more (it’s an incredible resource for all your Constitution-related questions).
After doing some more work for a blog post I’ve been researching on this subject for the past two months, it seems clear that Obama’s eligibility for the office of President of the United States would be an incredible legal question, but only if he actually was born in Kenya.
I disagree Avelino. I don’t think he’d have been born a citizen if he was born in Kenya. His one U.S. citizen parent would not have been resident in the U.S. for five years after she turned 14 as required at that time. She was 18 when he was born.
What’s your thinking?
I actually agree with that, which is why I think it would have been an interesting legal case (had it been discovered after he was sworn in, etc). I don’t think he would have made it far if it had been discovered he was from Kenya during the campaign or before.