The Post & Email by Roger L. Sharp 4/10/2023
To the Editor:
I read your
article and need to provide some information on the Wong Kim Ark case you refer to.
As I was reading it, I felt your apprehension about the case. Ark is a very strong case FOR NBC. But you, as I read it, left some ambiguity as to whether a person born of two permanent resident aliens was a natural born citizen. Let me suggest this:
1) The only time Ark mentions what a natural born citizen is is when Justice Gray stated, “The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country of parents who are citizens.” Nowhere in the case can you find a statement that says, “Anyone born in the United States is a natural born citizen” (para. 134). In fact you can’t find that statement anywhere.
2) In the U.S. District Court Ark v U.S. the Court declared Ark to be a “citizen,” not a natural born citizen. The Supreme Court ruled the same thing. So, Ark’s birth circumstances or anyone with birth circumstances like his are NOT natural born citizens.
3) In the same case Justice Gray restated what Chief Justice Waite had said that puts to rest any claim that the 14th Amendment grants “NBC” to anyone born in the U.S. In invoking the 14th Amendment, he specifically said, “The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens” (paragraphs 3-7 here.) That makes sense, too, because nowhere in the 14th Amendment do you find NBC.
More:
https://www.thepostemail.com/2023/04/10/the-definition-of-natural-born-citizen/
