Replies

1. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, US Citizen father, non-US Citizen mother, 1977
2. Born in Boulder, Colorado, US Citizen father, non-US CItizen mother, 1979

Son #1 is NBC because you are, and son #2 is, too, because of your citizenship and where he was born.

The supposed requirement that the parents both be citizens is a fiction the birthers invented after the 2008 election. In their frustration at having been utterly unable to prove Obama was born abroad, they (Leo Donofrio) cooked up the Vattel nonsense, in hopes the legal route would succeed where the factual didn't.

As Zak points out, Lincoln and the original GOP didn't buy it:

Let’s look at U.S. political history for more proof. Were there other instances of a presidential or vice presidential nominee with a foreign-born parent? You betcha!
The first presidential nominee of the Republican Party, in 1856, was John Charles Fremont. He was born in South Carolina to an American mother and a French father. Jean Charles Fremon was born a French citizen, near Lyon, France. He was not a U.S. citizen at the time of his son’s birth and never did become a citizen. Abraham Lincoln campaigned for Fremont. All the founders of the Republican Party campaigned for Fremont. One would be hard-pressed to find any suggestion at the time that Fremont’s birth made him ineligible for the presidency.

And there is no way the US Supreme Court is ever going to buy it, either. They will go with the common sense idea of what NBC is. During the 2008 election, Obama's parentage was not only known, but had been a celebrated aspect of his biography ever since his 2004 keynote address at the Donk convention. And, except for the loons claiming he was born in Mombasa to a woman supposedly too young to pass on citizenship, no one questioned his eligibility.

Not only that, but after a minor flub in the noon-time oath taking, the Chief Justice repeated the ceremony the following evening in the Map Room, just to make sure (LOL):

Chief Justice John Roberts, just making sure

Stare decisis et non quieta movere.

(For those of you in Rio Linda, Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative Republican appointed by GWB.)

Yes, everyone knew that Obama’s father was never a US citizen in 2008 - but that substantive issue was never able to be brought up in federal court, as all of the courts said that anyone who brought up the issue lacked standing to do so. The simple fact is that we’ve NEVER had any real safeguard to make sure that a person running for President or Congress was actually eligible.

That bit about Lincoln backing Fremont is what is known as a “red herring.” Lincoln was a politician, not a Supreme Court Justice ruling on an active case or controversy. His (and his Party’s) narrow self-interest in 1856 do not - CANNOT - override the Constitution.

Undefined terms in any law are defined by the prevailing law of the jurisdiction at the time the law is passed. The prevailing law at the time the Constitution was passed/ratified was the English Common Law, which was the basis of our entire legal system. Literally thousands of Supreme Court cases have confirmed that over the course of the last 200+ years.

The “Common sense” meaning of any words now is not necessarily the same as the common sense meaning of those same words at the time a law (or Constitution) became the law of the land. When in doubt, our judicial system ALWAYS looks to the ORIGINAL meaning of words or phrases.

In short, I think that you are incorrect...which doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t agree with using the “common sense” meaning of “natural born citizen” if we were drafting an amendment to the Constitution. However, we are NOT doing so, and are left to interpret words that are 225 years old AS THEY WERE UNDERSTOOD AT THAT TIME.

(For those of you in Rio Linda, Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative Republican appointed by GWB.)

For those of us that live in the real world all you can state for a fact is Chief Justice Roberts was appointed by GWB.

The totality of the rest of your post is prime fodder for the likes of the ACLU, and not worthy of a forum that is known for understanding plain English. You on the other display a talent that could produce several books explaining what three simple words mean, to helps us idiots that already know all too well what they mean.