The Post & Email by Harold Gielow 5/3/2023
Rumor is that the Kennedy campaign is considering Tulsi Gabbard as a VP. Mrs. Gabbard is a very attractive choice with one exception – she is constitutionally unqualified.
The natural born citizen clause of the Constitution has been ignored for some time. It has been nullified by precedent, yet it has never been altered by amendment, the only way the Constitution can legally be changed.
To be clear, there has never been a Supreme Court decision specifically dealing with this clause. In fact, Clarence Thomas joked before Congress that the court was avoiding the issue. In the interim, every permutation of its possible interpretation has been tested. Born in Canada to a US citizen mother; Ted Cruz. Born in Hawaii to a Kenyan citizen father; Obama. Born in South Carolina to Indian citizen parents; Nikki Haley. Born in California to an Indian citizen mother and a Jamaican citizen father; Kamala Harris. Born in the unincorporated territory of American Samoa to US citizen parents; Tulsi Gabbard. To highlight the extremities of this debate, Newsweek ran a cover claiming that prince Archie could one day run for US President because, as his mother was a US citizen at his birth, he is a US citizen at birth, which many equate to being a natural born citizen.
I do not expect to win any accolades for highlighting this issue. To the contrary, most who do are ridiculed; however, there is more than substantial evidence that the meaning of this phrase is very restrictive and contrary to the many contemporary interpretations. The following is offered to highlight the original meaning of this phrase, or at least disputes as to its meanings. The Kennedy campaign should consider this issue, especially since it seeks to be viewed as upholders of the law.
Natural Born Citizen
Definition given on the floor of Congress, Representative John Bingham, father of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Reference – (Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866))
“I find no fault with the introductory clause, which is simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen; but, sir, I may be allowed to say further, that I deny that the Congress of the United States ever had the power or color of power to say that any man born within the jurisdiction of the United States, not owing a foreign allegiance, is not and shall not be a citizen of the United States.”
Chief Justice Marshall’s dissent in the Venus case of 1814 had a quote from Vattel on the subject:
“The whole system of decisions applicable to this subject, rests on the law of nations as its base. It is, therefore, of some importance to enquire how far the writers on that law consider the subjects of one power residing within the territory of another, as retaining their original character, or partaking of the character of the nation in which they reside.
More:
https://www.thepostemail.com/2023/05/03/natural-born-citizen/
