Re: Judge orders Obama to produce birth certificate~~

This is from an online discussion on the subject


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2037867/replies?c=3


The legal on this question works like this. The US Constitution says specifically that to be eligible to be elected President of the US, a person must be a "natural born" US citizen.

There has been significant discussion about citizenship statutes which provide that a person born outside the US to two US citizens becomes a citizen at birth without a naturalization proceeding; another provision is that a person born outside the US with a single US citizen parent (and a non-citizen parent) becomes a citizen at birth without a naturalization proceeding but only if the US parent had resided in the US for ten years prior to the birth, at least five of which ten years were after such US parent had reached the age of 21.

Obama's only claim under the naturalization statute would fail because his mother, only 18 when he was born, could not, by definition, have met the five years after 21 requirement. Absent a naturalization proceeding, if he were born outside the US, Obama may not even be a US Citizen at all.

Constitutional historical documents make it clear that the drafters (natural born citizen) meant born in the actual territory of the US.

As pointed out by Ted Olson in a legal memo addressed to the John McCain citizenship issue, the Constitutional requirement is not subject to definition by Congress--the "natural born citizen" requirement is a Constitutional question--the fact that a person might qualify to avoid naturalization is irrelevant.

As Olson pointed out, even the McCain qualification is in doubt. Sure, Senator McCain is a citizen under the naturalization statutes. But that has no bearing on the question of whether he meets the Constitutional test which in my own view, he does not.

If this issue ever gets to the table, assuming the facts demonstrate that Obama was born in Kenya, in my opinion, neither one of the presumed nominees meets the Constitutional qualification requirement.
86 posted on 06/28/2008 1:32:49 PM PDT by David (...)