Obama in Africa

Sledog said:

IIRC the definition for natural born citizen was decided in People vs. Happsett

At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their [88 U.S. 162, 168] parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first.

Note it says "parents who were citizens" plural. So two citizen parents and born here. I'm no legal scholar maybe Creep will weigh in.

One legal take is in the linked essay I posted earlier. As much as we all respect the legal scholarship of pretend lawyers, the linked essay was written by former U.S. Solicitors General Paul Clement and Neal Katyal. Obama would qualify as a "natural born citizen" even under the Naturalization Act of 1790, which was enacted by Congress when many of the Framers were serving in Congress: "The Naturalization Act of 1790 expanded the class of citizens at birth to include children born abroad of citizen mothers as long as the father had at least been resident in the United States at some point." Barack Obama, Sr. was resident in the U.S. at some point. Nowadays, to be considered a citizen at birth under U.S. law, the father does not have to have been resident at any point.

If you want to really get in the weeds, you can read this long law-review article that posits different meanings of the constitutional language and the Naturalization Act of 1790.

Note that the "Happesett" opinion talked about the issue as an aside, but the justices didn't really decide the issue. The opinion says, "For the purposes of this case it is not necessary to solve these doubts."

The State Department (those fucking commies) explains the process under current law for certifying the birthright citizenship of a child born abroad to one or two U.S. citizens, here and here.

Sledog said:

IIRC the definition for natural born citizen was decided in People vs. Happsett

At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their [88 U.S. 162, 168] parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first.

Note it says "parents who were citizens" plural. So two citizen parents and born here. I'm no legal scholar maybe Creep will weigh in.

I like to drop IIRC then drop copypasta.