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I'll stick with the plain meaning of the text, de Vattel be damned. As did John Roberts on 20 January 2009. Twice.

In any case, poor Emmerich was resurrected from his musty, anonymous repose on this forum well after the issue was decided in 2008. Go find a post earlier than 11 Dec 2008!

The common meaning of Natural Born is Citizen by Birth. Obama's eligible. Period. Now, go make yourself useful in forming the 2012 case against him!

Vattel only described what was already in practice in the 18th Century and earlier centuries. Killing the messenger in the form of Vattel does nothing whatsoever to change the meaning of natural born citizen as it was practiced in the periods leading up to the Constitutional Convention adn the adoption of the Constitution.

The common meaning of Natural Born is Citizen by Birth. Obama's eligible. Period. Now, go make yourself useful in forming the 2012 case against him! -------------------------------------- You need to bring better arguments than that... II. „Natural Born Citizenship‟ as defined and adjudicated by the SupremeCourt of the United States. 4 Supreme Court Cases define „natural born Citizen‟: 1. The Venus, 12 U.S. 8 Cranch 253 253 (1814)Justice Livingston, who wrote the unanimous decision, quoted the entire §212ndparagraph from the French edition of Vattel: “The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certainduties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages.Thenatives or indigenes are those born in the country of parents who arecitizens.Society not being able to subsist and to perpetuate itself but by thechildren of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers,and succeed to all their rights.” 2. Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 3 Pet. 242 242 (1830)Justice Story, who gave the ruling, cites the principle of citizenship enshrined in hisdefinition of a “natural born citizen”: … she might well be deemed under the circumstances of this case to hold thecitizenship of her father,for children born in a country, continuing while underage in the family of the father, partake of his national character as a citizenof that country. 3.Minor v. Happersett , 88 U.S. 162 (1875) The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in that year, wrote the majority opinion, inwhich he stated:The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resortmust be had elsewhere to ascertain that.At common law, with thenomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it wasnever doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were itscitizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These werenatives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. 4. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)In this case, Wong Kim Ark,the son of 2 resident Chinese aliens, claimed U.S.Citizenship and was vindicated by the court on the basis of the 14th Amendment. Inthis case the Justice Gray gave the opinion of the court. On p. 168-9 of the record,He cites approvingly the decision in Minor vs. Happersett: At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution werefamiliar, it was never doubted thatall children, born in a country of parentswho were its citizens, became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also.These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens orforeigners. This (flawed, to many) decision extended citizenship to all born in the country(excepting those born of ambassadors and foreign armies, etc.); but itdid notextend the meaning of the term „natural born citizen‟. ..."Finally it should be noted, that to define a term is to indicate the category or class of thingswhich it signifies. In this sense,the Supreme Court of the United States has neverapplied the term “natural born citizen” to any other category than “those born inthe country of parents who are citizens thereof”. " http://www.scribd.com/doc/55105383/Executive-Summary-Re-NBC-Defined-in-Constitution-Plus-4-SCOTUS-Cases

The common meaning of Natural Born is Citizen by Birth.

Obama, with his signature on SR511, disagrees with you. And don't even come back saying SR511 isn't law. Obama, Clinton, Chertoff and the rest agree with the TWO US CITIZEN PARENTS definition so much so that they attached their signatures to it. If Obama, the great constitutional lawyer and lecturer, agrees that to be the definition then who are you to argue?

0bama is "half American, half-African and ALL Marxist and he loathes the constitution. Bears no allegience to it whatsoever. He bragged about that up front in his book and in his campaign. Americans of the Democrat persuasion were just too dumb to believe him. He’s exactly the type of foreigner that our founders feared when they included the Natural Born Citizen requirement in the constitution."