Obama Birth Certificate? Constitutional Meaning "natural born citizen"? Is Obama qualified to be president?

bash

The term "natural born Citizen" has never been defined by the Courts in the course of a Presidential qualification challenge. It is believed by some that this provision means that only persons born on U.S. soil to two U.S. citizens are â€œnatural born Citizensâ€ of the nation and eligible to become President. There are others who believe that anyone who acquires citizenship by any means other than naturalization is a "natural born Citizen" and eligible for the Presidency. In between these extremes lie gray areas, some controversy, and various obiter dicta from the courts. A majority of commentators today argue that the Presidential Eligibility clause incorporates both common-law (Jus soli) and English statuatory (Jus sanguinis) principles.

Although only dealing with the concept of citizenship and not necessarily natural born citizenship, the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides an additional source of constitutional doctrine stating that birth "in the United States" and subjection to U.S. jurisdiction at the time of birth, entitles one to citizenship:

â€œ All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

quizzard123

Oh my god, is this STILL coming up??

Do you people not have lives. you have nothing better to do than bring up old, LONG answered questions?

I had my 8 yr old son ask me about this a while back, and frankly, I could not explain to him why people would still be harping on this subject.

The US government has long established rules on the definition of 'natural born', based on common sense and legal precedent. Who are you to think that somehow you know better what the framers of the constitution really 'meant'?

delphi

He IS President.

zaphod73@att.net

No, this does not mean that any parent has to be a citizen...you simply have to be born on American soil (unlike McCain who was born in PANAMA!)

Trying to conveniently interpret the Constitution for your own selfish benefit does not make it so...DUH!!!

wizjp

I don't know what gets older; the "birth certificate" argument or the "He avoided paying taxes, he shouldn't be in office" idiocy.

I didn't vote for the man. I'm not a fan.

COULD WE PLEASE drop this particular bit of goofyness? It is utterly irrelevant at this point and move on to REAL problems ?

sebastiansmommy2008

if he didnt, he wouldnt be president!!!

tuffy68

blahblahblahblah.....

ElNicoli

It does not. It simply means that he must be born on US territory. There is not mention in the Constitution about someones parentage if they gain their citizenship by being born in the US. By the Constitution, the child of illegal immigrants, if they are born in the US, is a citizen.

Dave87gn

Obama was born in the United States, despite the hopes and dreams of republicans that he was born in Kenya

godisgrate

**Face palm**

Natural born citizen: Born as a citizen of the country.
His mother is American.
He was born in the United States
He is an American Citizen.

End of story.

à®Sillyà®

I'm a conservative republican that voted for McCain and Bush before him and EVEN I'M sick of this debate.

Give it a rest.

Kaz

The poor old dead horse is getting the crap beat out of it. You got anything new?

greek mythology is andocentrist

does it matter? I expect him to do a heck of a lot better than Bush, even if he isn't.

I don't care, so why would anyone?

King Midas

You are wrong on two accounts, It doesn't matter if none of your parents were born in America as long as you were.

Secondly, don't you think the US government investigated this already before he even ran for office.

MadMan

If one is born in the US, one is a "natural born citizen" by definition. Get over it. He won.

nomiscats

It doesn't matter at all if either parent is a citizen. It only matters where the child is born. If the child is born in the US then he/she is a natural citizen of the US despite where its parents were born.

Mike G

If you're born in this country, you're a citizen. Try it sometime. Take a foreign mother-to-be, put her in the US, and let her have her baby. Boom! That kid's a citizen. That's how it works. And that's all "natural born citizen" means. It has nothing to do with the parents.

Think about it: six other presidents had at least one foreign-born parent. From USAVotes:
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) is the only president born of two immigrants, both Irish. Presidents with one immigrant parent are Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), whose mother was born in England, James Buchanan (1857-1861) and Chester Arthur (1881-1885), both of whom had Irish fathers, and Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) and Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), whose mothers were born respectively in England and Canada.

All of those men were considered natural-born citizens because they were born in the US. The parents had nothing to do with it.

Obama's parents could have been born on Mars and Klingon. Doesn't matter. What matters is where he was born.

Oscar

I don't think it really matters out here. You would either have to get the United States Supreme Court to agree. Or else have the fire power to back it up.

I don't like Obama or his politics. But there will be another election. Maybe people will wise up. Course I figure the odds are about the same as being struck by lightning. But hey, it could happen.

Buck Fush

The fact that you're even asking this question means that I have to tell you NOT to take your cues from the idiots who post that crap about Obama's birth certificate. It's not an issue and never was. The very fact that these morons keep bringing it up shows how uneducated they are and exposes the fact that they have nothing better to talk about.

And you folks giving me thumbs down are just proving my point.

Redhead

You are so correct. Why then is everyone ignoring the facts here? Frankly, I think he should be removed from the presidency at once. Everything seems to be swept under the carpet doesn't it? The more people continue questioning this maybe something will get done to correct the wrong committed in Jan, 2009. To say get over it is nuts!

Atavacron

His mother was, therefore he is. Citizenship in the US derives from the mother. Any man can be the father, but there are generally witnesses as to who the mother of a child is.

Not to mention that he was born on US soil.

And, since the Supreme Court has turned down hearing two ridiculous suits asking the same questions it's fairly clear the Court deems him fit under law to hold the office.

Straight is Great!

hussein obama has yet to prove his eligibility to be president. Don't worry though, there are people with standing that are in the process of getting another lawsuit together right now. The courts have rejected all other lawsuits before saying those that brought the lawsuits did not have standing. This new one does!

hussein obama could put this all to rest by opening his records and providing his REAL birth certificate. This will haunt him every day until he does and if he had an ounce of respect for his sheep he would put an end to the mystery.

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