But they can define "natural born citizen" once and for all.
The fear is that if the do define "natural born citizen" as a person born in the country to two citizen parents, then where does that leave Obama
If the Supreme Court cannot remove Obama from office, then what would be the purpose of defining "natural born citizen" at this time? Since the first Chief Justice (John Jay), the Court has made it clear that the Court's functions do not include providing "advisory opinions" just to help clarify Constitutional provisions.
Like all Americans, Thomas Paine was entitled to his own opinions.
Here was Paine's opinion of George Washington:
"Mr. Washington owed it to me on every score of private acquaintance, I will not now say, friendship; for it has some time been known by those who know him, that he has no friendships; that he is incapable of forming any; he can serve or desert a man, or a cause, with constitutional indifference; and it is this cold hermaphrodite faculty that imposed itself upon the world, and was credited for a while by enemies as by friends, for prudence, moderation and impartiality."
Here was Paine's opinion of our second president, John Adams:
"John Adams is one of those men who never contemplated the origin of government, or comprehended any thing of first principles. If he had, he might have seen, that the right to set up and establish hereditary government, never did, and never can, exist in any generation at any time whatever; that it is of the nature of treason; because it is an attempt to take away the rights of all the mirrors living at that time, and of all succeeding generations. It is of a degree beyond common treason. It is a sin against nature. The equal right of every generation is a right fixed in the nature of things. It belongs to the son when of age, as it belonged to the father before him. John Adams would himself deny the right that any former deceased generation could have to decree authoritatively a succession of governors over him, or over his children; and yet he assumes the pretended right, treasonable as it is, of acting it himself. His ignorance is his best excuse."
And, here was Paine's opinion of our first Chief Justice, John Jay:
"John Jay has said, (and this John was always the sycophant of every thing in power, from Mr. Girard in America, to Grenville in England,)—John Jay has said, that the Senate should have been appointed for life. He would then have been sure of never wanting a lucrative appointment for himself, and have had no fears about impeachment. These are the disguised traitors that call themselves Federalists."
So, Washington was a hermaphrodite incapable of forming friendships, Adams was ignorant and Jay was a disguised traitor. And, all of these opinions were expressed in just a single Tom Paine letter.
It seems to me entirely possible that the Supreme Court might not automatically defer to Thomas Paine when it comes to interpreting the Constitution.
I offer Paine's words as a contemporary of the framing of the Constitution. He wrote his comparison of the Presidency at a time when it was fresh in people's minds. I have not seen other writings (other than Jay's letter to Washington) on the intent of the natural-born clause.
I agree that Paine became a bitter man later in life. He was ostracized from society, and died alone with little acknowledgement.
I read a letter of Paine's from 1807 that is on display at the Thomas Paine House in New Rochelle, NY. In this letter, Paine pleads with Vice-President George Clinton to testify on his behalf to a local election board that refused to allow Paine to vote, claiming that he was not a citizen.
Paine wrote: "As it is a new generation that has risen up since the declaration of independence, they know nothing of what political state of the country was at the time the pamphlet Common Sense appeared; and besides this there are but few of the old standards left, and none that I know of in this city."
Clearly, he was a forgotten man in his old age, largely due to his own later behaviors. Still, that doesn't take away the value of his earlier contributions.
-PJ