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To: OldDeckHand

So you think that one case that makes up its own term but still supports the use of Vattel should overturn a preponderance of Supreme Court cases that state that the Vattel definition was meant by the founders?

This is what I posted to Mr. Rogers a day or two ago:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/10/18/4-supreme-court-cases-define-natural-born-citizen/

Here is more information that those words that do not change hundreds of years of precedence.

http://federalistblog.us/2008/11/natural-born_citizen_defined.html

Hopefully we have enough strict constructionists and non revisionists on the Supreme Court who understand that the people don’t want them to re-write the law, just interpret it.


74 posted on 04/24/2010 12:50:57 PM PDT by Waryone
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To: Waryone
"Hopefully we have enough strict constructionists and non revisionists on the Supreme Court who understand that the people don’t want them to re-write the law, just interpret it."

One of the foremost authorities on semantic originalism Lawrence Solum, published a paper a few years ago that dealt with the semantic intent of "natural-born". It's a lengthy and somewhat heady piece, as it's written by an academic for the Michigan Law Review. But, in the article (titled ORIGINALISM AND THE NATURAL BORN CITIZEN CLAUSE and which may be found at papers.ssrn.com), Solum posits that a natural-born citizen is any citizen born on American soil to at least one citizen-parent.

Now, if we have Solum, who is extremely well-regarded as an authority on original intent and semantic originalism (see his own legal theory blog), positing this meaning of "natural-born" by characterizing it as "beyond dispute", how do you think the originalists on the Court are going to hold?

I have seen plenty of blog postings from a myriad of pseudo-constitutional scholars or other lawyers of absolutely no note or standing claiming what is so frequently and fervently claimed here - that natural-born means born on US soil to two citizen-parents. But, I have never seen such a theory advanced in any American law journal - to include conservative journals or legal advocacy groups.

Antonin Scalia, Clearance Thomas, Roberts and Alito are all academics - conservative academics, but academics nonetheless; Cut from the same exact cloth as Solum. You can bet a year's salary that the four conservative justices mirror Solum on this particular matter of law.

78 posted on 04/24/2010 1:11:09 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
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