Re: NFRA on the Natural Born Citizen Issue

[Maj. Bill Martin]

English law/common law interpretations are valid unless/until varied from expressly by codified law and subsequent common law decisions.   That why we have a President and not a King - because the Constitution expressly and in detail states that the Executive Authority is vested in a President, establishes the Congress, etc..  Nothing is applied or assumed.

In direct contrast, there is zero mention of DeVattel, his book, or even his definition of a natural born citizen.   Absent that, the easy default is contemporaneous English law, which was used to fill in all sorts of "gaps" in the Constitution.

Just as one tiny example, the 8th Amendment expressly bars "excessive bail.".  Yet, courts do have the right to deny bail altogether in some cases, which seems contradictory.  But the courts - including the Supreme Court - have held that at English Common Law, bail could be denied in cases where the individual was believed to be too dangerous.  Therefore, that exception was held to be understood as present in the 8th Amendment as well.

Feel free to think I don't know what I'm talking about.   But consider that not a single judge - regardless of whether that judge was appointed by a Democrat or Republican - agreed with your interpretation and barred Obama.  No one.

I'm very far from being alone on this, so your
"and you know it!" Is simply ridiculous.  I "know" nothing of the sort.