After their hysterical claims against Barack Obama were debunked earlier this year, birthers have started to focus their guns on Senator Marco Rubio (R), who they claim is ineligible to serve as President, because of the "natural born citizen" clause of the Constitution.
Apparently, according to the birthers, centuries of legal understanding have cemented the legal doctrine that "natural born" means you were born to two citizens on U.S. soil, and that anything else falls short of muster.
I'm not exactly sure where to begin, but they are absolutely incorrect, again, in their convoluted birth theory.
We need look no further then the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 to the Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States". The 14th amendment was passed after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship for former slaves, but it also defines who qualifies as natural born.
Considering Senator Marco Rubio was born in the United States in 1971 to two legal immigrants, who had lived in the United States for more than fifteen years and were undergoing the process of naturalization, thus revoking any and all Cuban jurisdiction, I think it's safe to say the latest target of birther aggression is off the hook.
What say you?
I say I disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe Law of Nations by de Vattel was used by John Jay who became the first Chief Justice of the US.
Jay had the 'natural-born citizen' clause inserted in the Constitution via a letter he wrote to Washington. Jay wrote: "Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and reasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen."
Now let's see what de Vattel said in his book: "The citizens are the members of a civil society; bound by this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or 'natural-born citizens', are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens."
SCOTUS, so taken with this meaning, used the above when deciding The Venus, 12 US 8 Cranch in 1814 and also included this from the same book: "Society not being able to subsist and to perpetuate itself but by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the conditions of their fathers and succeed to all their rights."
Of course, we can again dismiss the Constitution and further rip it to shreds by ignoring its original intent and elect Rubio to the Presidency. Apparently, the Constitution means nothing anymore because 'desire' outweighs the supreme law of the land.