Birthers turn on GOP rising stars

Posted By Joshua Keating Monday, May 23, 2011 - 11:38 AM Share

GOP candidates like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann who have openly pandered to those doubting Barack Obama's citizenship may come to regret that stance. Two of the party's rising stars, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Florida Senator Marco Rubio now seem to be in the crosshairs of WorldNetDaily, the site that has pushed the Obama rumors since the election:

The next national election is less than 18 months away, and both rising Republican stars have been touted as potential contenders for either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot on a presidential ticket.

But their eligibility is in doubt since both men's parents were not U.S. citizens at the time their future political children were born, WND can reveal. That factor is important because the Constitution mandates a presidential candidate to be a "natural-born citizen," a requirement that has dogged President Barack Obama since the 2008 campaign.

The authors don't dispute that both men were born in the United States -- Jindal has even released his birth certificate -- so what's the issue? It appears that WordNetDaily is now trying to move the goalposts on what constitutes a "natural-born" citizen:

The fact that Rubio and Jindal were both born in America undoubtedly makes them "native-born" citizens, but does it mean they're "natural-born" citizens?

Some would say no – including legal sources relied upon by America's Founders – based on the foreign births of their parents, an issue many claim disqualifies Obama from holding the presidency, since Obama's father held British citizenship due to his birth in Kenya, which was under British rule at the time.

The Founders' chief concern, as demonstrated in a 1787 letter from John Jay to George Washington, was that the commander-in-chief not have dual loyalties.

Jay, who later became president of the Continental Congress and the first Supreme Court chief justice, wrote: "Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen."

The argument relies not on any actual written U.S. law but on Jay's decision, a law from 1790 that was repealed later and -- my personal favorite -- "a 1758 work by Swiss legal philosopher Emmerich de Vattel, was read by many of the American Founders and informed their understanding of law later established in the Constitution." So the founders relied on (gasp) international law?

Somehow I have a feeling this ends with only landholding, Mayflower-descended Freemasons being eligible to run for president. 

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty Images

 

MARKPEAR22

2:16 PM ET

May 23, 2011

"The Founding Fathers Believed..."

This is the major concern that I have with this political argument.... it imposes fictiional homogeneity on the founders, so people can selectively emphasize a letter, or the work of one founder and apply it the whole to provide it legitimacy. I really wish we would stop with the "founding fathers believed" nonsense. They were not a monolith and political expediency is a poor rationale for us to pretend that they were.

 

BECKWITH

5:35 AM ET

May 24, 2011

An ill-informed article . . .

Re: "Somehow I have a feeling this ends with only landholding, Mayflower-descended Freemasons being eligible to run for president. "

What an absolutely absurd statement.

Most 2nd generation Vietnamese-Americans are eligible to serve as POTUS because their parents were "naturalized" American citizens when they were born.

And this statement shows the writer's ignorance of "natural born" citizen -- "The argument relies not on any actual written U.S. law..."

If a person's citizenship depends on a "law" that person is a statutory citizen, and a statutory citizen (bestowed by man's pen) can never be a "natural born" citizen (bestowed by God/nature).

Persons, eligible for the Office of the President of the United States (POTUS), NEVER have first generation ties to a foreign nation, whereas ineligible persons always do. ALL statutory citizens are born with a tie to another nation by birthplace and/or blood, but NEVER is that the case with natural born citizens who have only American ties.

See here for more information:

http://www.theobamafile.com/obamanaturalborn.htm

http://www.theobamafile.com/_eligibility/FourCases.htm

 

THE GLOBALIZER

12:38 PM ET

May 24, 2011

Sorry.

I'm not the world's greatest fan of birthright citizenship, but it is the law of the land, like it or not, and no linguistic confabulations will alter that fact.

Citizenship has always been understood to arise at birth, as you are a subject of the rules in the land in which you are born and reside. The matter has become considerably grayed over time, with international travel and communication being commonplace (and the attendant increased restrictions on human migration), but it speaks more to a disconnect between 18th and 21st century ideas of citizenship than it does to the legitimacy of our president.

Remember that at the time of the Constitution, nearly everyone who traveled internationally was a merchant, a diplomat, a soldier, or extraordinarily wealthy.

 

RHYMES WITH RIGHT

7:28 PM ET

May 24, 2011

Actually, the controlling definition is found in Common Law

As i noted here recently, there was a common law definition of natural born citizenship that would have been recognized by the Framers of the Constitution when they used that phrase -- and Barack Hussein Obama Jr. meets it.

 

RHYMES WITH RIGHT

7:25 AM ET

May 24, 2011

A non-issue

1) Most Republicans didn't buy into the twisted notion of what constitutes a natural-born citizen being peddled over at Whirled Nuts Daily, and so we will ignore the discredited Joe Farrah crew. Both of the individuals cited in the article were born in the US to legal resident aliens, and so under the 14th Amendment have birthright citizenship -- making them natural-born citizens by any but the most tortured argument.

2) Obama's failure to release the birth certificate in 2008 did the nation a great disservice by failing to release the document in 2008 so as to settle the matter in the minds of all but the lunatic fringe.

 

BECKWITH

9:17 AM ET

May 24, 2011

The "natural born"

The "natural born" eligibility requirement existed for 90 years before the ratification of the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment addresses "citizenship." It provides a "broad definition" of citizenship that overruled the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that blacks could not be citizens of the United States.

Articel II Section I, Clause 5 of the US Constitution addresses "eligibility" for the Office of President of the United States.

Eligibility and citizenship are two different things.

The political Left has tried to blur the clear distinction between eligibility for the office of POTUS and US citizenship forever.

"Natural born" citizens are in a class separate from all others. They are, in fact, in a classification or category unto themselves because they alone are eligible to serve as Commander-in-Chief -- a fact that unsettles many -- but that's the way it is.

And please note, I was able to post this without having to stoop to name-calling and ad hominem attacks.

 

RHYMES WITH RIGHT

5:42 PM ET

May 24, 2011

I beg to differ

By virtue of constitutionalizing citizenship, the notion of natural-born citizenship must be understood as either being congruent with the dictates of the Fourteenth Amendment -- or de facto repealed.

 

GRANT

7:44 AM ET

May 24, 2011

Well, if it ends up like that

Well, if it ends up like that at least I'll finally have a chance of becoming president. In any case the ability of the Republican party to alienate the fastest growing minority group in America still manages to amaze me. Are they trying to make sure that twenty years from now every president will be a Democrat?

 

BECKWITH

9:21 AM ET

May 24, 2011

Natural Born Citizen

If both of your parents were American citizens at the moment of your birth, and you were born in the mainland USA (includes Alaska and Hawaii after statehood), you are a "natural born" citizen and eligible to serve as POTUS.

In all other cases, you are a "statutory" citizen.

 

GRANT

3:28 PM ET

May 24, 2011

I was referring to the

I was referring to the comment about eventually only descendants from the Mayflower would be eligible. Apparently some ancestor of mine arrived on the Mayflower though I don't know who*.

*Mostly because I honestly consider people who make a fuss over tracing their lineage back that far just to score points to be ridiculous.

 

DING123

10:15 AM ET

May 24, 2011

"if both of your parents were

"if both of your parents were American citizens at the moment of your birth, and you were born in the mainland USA (includes Alaska and Hawaii after statehood), you are a "natural born" citizen and eligible to serve as POTUS.

In all other cases, you are a "statutory" citizen."

i agree with you.

discount golf clubs
Mizuno MP-63 Iron Set
Mizuno JPX 800 Irons

 

DING123

10:16 AM ET

May 25, 2011

Buying discount golf clubs

Buying discount golf clubs from discountclubsgolf.com ? We has discount golf clubs for sale. Our golf shop is an online retailer of discount golf equipment. We try our best to provide excellent customer service and get high value of our world famous discount golf clubs. We provide the professional golf guidance that help you buy right golf equipment you really need. Besides Our discount golf shop has a wide range of brand golf clubs such as R11 driver, RAZR X irons, X-24 irons, R9 series clubs from Taylor Made Golf, Ping Golf, Titleist Golf, Callaway Golf and etc. All the cheap golf clubs are ordered directly from authorized manufacturer. Now if you are in United Kingdom, United States, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and etc, you can enjoy free shipping worldwide - DHL, EMS and UPS as our carrier.

 

Passport, FP’s flagship blog, brings you news and hidden angles on the biggest stories of the day, as well as insights and under-the-radar gems from around the world.

Read More