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To: CA Conservative
the first 9 presidents of the US were natural born, since there was no USA for them to be citizens OF at the time of their birth.

No, the first nine as it turned out were exempt from this reading of "natural born."

59 posted on 06/19/2014 8:39:38 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: Theodore R.
No, the first nine as it turned out were exempt from this reading of "natural born."

I recognize that there was an exception built into the clause to cover those born before the US was a nation. I even mentioned that earlier in the thread. My point was about how narrowly the poster was interpreting the natural born clause, and also how that interpretation does not agree with how the Founders and the courts understood the term in the early days of the US. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the common law interpretation of "natural born" meant that the person was born within the boundaries of the country in question, and did not regard the citizenship of the parents as relevant in determining whether the child was a "natural born" citizen.

60 posted on 06/20/2014 6:30:27 AM PDT by CA Conservative (Texan by birth, Californian by circumstance)
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