Presidential Eligibility: Natural-born Citizen

                    The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns citizenship and comes from Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:  "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President…."  In order to be eligible to hold the office of President of the United States, a person must satisfy three eligibility requirements based on age, residency and citizenship.  This post will discuss citizenship.

The Framers of the Constitution wanted to guarantee that Americans would always have a President who was one of their own native-born fellow citizens.  The Framers wanted to guarantee as much as possible that every President of our nation would have undivided loyalty to the United States.  They must be tossing in their graves at the damage Barack Obama is doing to our nation!

While George Washington was at the Constitutional Convention, he received a letter from John Jay, "urging `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.'  Justice Story later noted that the natural-born-citizenship requirement `cuts off all chances for ambitious foreigners, who might otherwise be intriguing for the office.'

"… But the question remains whether the term `natural born Citizen' used in Article II includes the parliamentary rule of jus sanguinis [citizenship passed from parent to child regardless of place of birth] in addition to the common law of jus soli [persons born within the territory are citizens from birth except children of enemy aliens or foreign diplomats].  In United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the Supreme Court relied on English common law regarding jus soli to inform the meaning of `citizen' in the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the natural-born-citizenship requirement of Article II, and noted that any right to citizenship through jus sanguinis was available only by statute, and not through the Constitution.  Notwithstanding the Supreme Court's discussion in Wong Kim Ark, a majority of commentators today argue that the Presidential Eligibility Clause incorporates both the common-law and English statutory principles, and that therefore, Michigan Governor George Romney, who was born to American parents outside of the United States, was eligible to seek the Presidency in 1968."  (See James C. Ho in The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, p. 190).

With all the questions about where Barack Obama was born and the identity of his real father, how can we know if he really is a natural born citizen.  The question remains:  why did he feel the need to seal all his records - birth, school, passport, etc. - and then present a false birth certificate to the nation?