jamese777,
You have incorrect information.
Every President born before the adoption of the Constitution in 1787 was eligible because of the grandfather clause of Article 2, Section 1:
“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;”
Both Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson are covered by that clause.
James Buchanan’s father emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland in 1783. When the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787 (and ratified in 1788), it conferred citizenship upon everyone living in the States. Therefore James Buchanan’s father was a citizen of the United States when James Buchanan was born in 1791. So, James Buchanan was a natural born citizen.
Woodrow Wilson’s mother became a U.S. citizen by Congressional act in 1855. Wilson was born in 1856. Therefore, both of Wilson’s parents were U.S. citizens, which makes Wilson a natual born citizen.
Herbert Hoover’s mother became a citizen in 1870 under the same 1855 Congressional act that conferred citizenship on Wilson’s mother. Hoover was born in 1874 to two U.S. citizen parents and he is therefore a natural born citizen.
Chester Arthur is a different story and a long one at that. So, I’ll refer you to these groundbreaking discoveries regarding the citizenship of Arthur.
The same applies to Andrew Johnson. His parents were naturalized before he was born. Therefore he was natural born citizen too.
Regards,
Tex
P.S. The above facts are courtesy of the following article by Leo Donofrio.
(None of the above links works anymore.)
So you feel that it is not whether a president’s parents were BORN as US citizens but whether they ever became US citizens?
Could you point me to a law in the US Code, a Supreme Court decision or a clause in the Constitution that backs up your point of view?
With specific regard to Barack Obama, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last November that: “Based upon the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 and the guidance provided by [the 1898 US Supreme Court decision in US v] Wong Kim Ark, we conclude that persons born within the borders of the United States are “natural born Citizens” for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents. Just as a person ‘born within the British dominions [was] a natural-born British subject’ at the time of the framing of the U.S. Constitution, so too were those ‘born in the allegiance of the United States natural-born citizens.’”—Indiana Court of Appeals, Ankeny et. al. v The Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, Nov. 12, 2009