[BuckeyeTexan]

Ping

[mlo]

"The expression ‘citizen of the United States occurs in the clauses prescribing qualifications for Representatives, for Senators, and for President. In the latter, the term ‘natural born citizen’ is used and excludes all persons owing allegiance by birth to foreign states."

It says "citizen" for Congress because a naturalized citizen is eligible. That's the only distinction to draw from those words.

[Seizethecarp]

See same article posted by rxsid:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2500780/posts

[ml/nj]

ping

[Mr Rogers]

I guess my objection is with the idea that Obama OWED the UK allegiance at birth.

He was eligible to claim citizenship in the UK, but foreign law does not obligate him to do so, or divide his natural loyalty.

Given that:

1) His father never seems to have lived with his mother, and he was raised by his mother or her parents, and

2) his father completely abandoned him at a very early age, and

3) his father wasn’t legally married to his mother, since he was already married at the time and bigamy was illegal,

4) he has never in any way acted as though he had allegiance to the UK, and

5) he has deliberately snubbed the British government on multiple occasions,

I find the idea that Obama owed natural allegiance to the UK ridiculous.

Also, the USA does NOT support the ‘once British, always British’ doctrine - we had a war over that in 1812...

[Mr Rogers]

The following quotes came before the possibility of Obama being elected was raised, so I think they show where legal opinion had settled prior to Obama running:

“NATURAL BORN CITIZENS. A natural-born citizen of the United States is one who is a citizen by reason of his place of birth or the citizenship of his father. The two classes of naturalized and natural born citizens are thus mutually exclusive, and together constitute the entire citizen body of the United States. ”

Andrew C. McLaughlin & Albert Bushnell Hart ( Ed.), CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Vol. 2 (1914).

“NATURAL-BORN CITIZEN. A person whose citizenship derives from the nation where he or she was born.”

Kenneth Robert Redden, Enid Veron, Modern Legal Glossary, pg. 263 (1980)

“Natural-born citizens can acquire that status by being born in the United States, on the basis of jus soli…”

William Carroll, Norman Smith, American Constitutional Rights: cases, documents, and commentary, pg. 130 (1991)

“The requirement that the president be a “natural born” citizen implies that the framers recognized the principle of jus soli. According to this doctrine – literally meaning the “right to land or ground” – citizenship results from birth within a national territory.”

Kermit Hall, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, pg. 24 (1992)

“Americans are accustomed to the concept of automatic citizenship granted to persons born in the United States, who are called “natural-born citizens…”

Joseph M. Bessette, American Justice, Volume 1 – Page 129 (1996)

“Natural-born citizens are people born in the United States.”

David Heath, the Presidency of the United States, pg. 8 (1999)

“Natural Born Citizenship Clause. The clause of the U.S. Constitution barring persons not born in the United States from the presidency.”

Black’s Law Dictionary, eigth edition (1999)