Summary

To be Natural Born simply means to be 100% American, not half American and half something else. One needs to be full blooded American, not a half breed.

Since 2008, when Obama, the son of an American mother and a Kenyan or British Subject father, making him a 14th Amendment citizen, won and got away with it, we have witnessed an onslaught against the Constitutional requirement to be a Natural Born Citizen to be President.

We had Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and Bobby Jindal on the Republican side running in 2016 along with new female hopeful Nikki Haley for down the road. This year on the Democrat side there is Kamala Harris and Tulsi Gabbard. Andrew Yang of which we know little about his citizenship status, needs to make his parents naturalization papers available so this can be determined.

I`m not sure how it works in every state, but in most states the Secretary of State is the head election official. They can only do what they have been instructed to do via the laws the legislature puts forth. In most states the legislature has failed to hold to the Secretary of State responsible for verifying the eligibility of each candidate for President. It is left up to the party apparatus to send over documentation that says all the candidates for that party have sworn under penalty of perjury that they are eligible to run. No where does it state on either party ballot petition that they are Natural Born only that they are eligible. Its like letting the Fox guard the henhouse. The party`s will never find anyone that isn`t eligible if its left up to them.

It also seems people with an agenda have spread the inaccurate rumor or are just confused that one only has to be born on US soil, jus soli, to be natural born and eligible to be President which is not accurate. When one is born on US soil to foreign parents they are a 14th Amendment Naturalized US Citizen, not eligible.

As it was never stated in the Constitution what was meant by the term Natural Born Citizen, we must look to the nomenclature of the times and writings of the founders to rediscover its true meaning.

There have been many Supreme Court rulings that have stated one way or another that to be a Natural Born Citizen one needs to be born on US soil to two US citizen parents.

There have been many knowledgeable people from that time, that have stated exactly what is meant by the term.

Dave Ramsey lived in the day and was privy to several of the Constitutional Conventions and wrote a A Dissertation on the Manner of Acquiring The Character & Privileges of a Citizen of the United states: which clearly states what the meaning is. He stated that citizenship “as a natural right, belongs to none but those who have been born of citizens since the 4th of July, 1776….

John Armor Bingham has stated numerous times on the house floor what was meant by the term and not one time did anyone disagree or object or state any alternative meaning. He stated, "all other persons born within the Republic, of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty, are natural born citizens."

Rep. Bingham and Senator Johnson cite 3 factors to be a natural-born citizen:

1. born of citizen “parents” (plural not singular therefore requiring you to have 2 U.S. Citizen parents for this status)

2. born within the ‘jurisdiction of the United States.

3. owing allegiance to no other country.

Emmerich de Vattel’s book, The Law of Nations, was used as a reference text for helping write and later understand the different parts of the U.S. Constitution. The law of nations is the law of sovereigns; free and independent states are moral persons, whose rights and obligations we are to establish as natural rights. Vattel was the most trusted and used writer to help form this nation.

Vattel is the influence of the times on the Founding Fathers. This is the language our founding fathers followed when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, " The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens.

Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162, 167-68 (1875) (same definition without citing Vattel); Ex parte Reynolds, 1879, 5 Dill., 394, 402 (same definition and cites Vattel);

"The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of PARENTS (plural) who were its CITIZENS (plural) became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners."

It is word for word from Vattel.

Given this time-honored definition, which has been confirmed by subsequent United States Supreme Court and some lower court cases such as The Venus, 12 U.S. (8 Cranch) 253, 289 (1814) (Marshall, C.J., concurring and dissenting for other reasons, cites Vattel and provides his definition of natural born citizens);

Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) (Justice Daniels concurring took out of Vattel’s definition the reference to “fathers” and “father” and replaced it with “parents” and “person,” respectively); Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 242, 245 (1830) (same definition without citing Vattel);

Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36, 21 L.Ed. 394, 16 Wall. 36 (1872) (in explaining the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment clause, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” said that the clause “was intended to exclude from its operation children of ministers, consuls, and citizens or subjects of foreign States born within the United States;”

Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94 (1884) (“the children of subjects of any foreign government born within the domain of that government, or the children born within the United States, of ambassadors or other public ministers of foreign nations” are not citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment because they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States);

United States v. Ward, 42 F.320 (C.C.S.D.Cal. 1890) (same definition and cites Vattel); U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) (quoted from the same definition of “natural born Citizen” as did Minor v. Happersett);

Then the defining speech that lays out the most important aspect of the requirement and that is allegiance:

Rep. John Bingham (in the House on March 9, 1866, in commenting on the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which was the precursor to the Fourteenth Amendment: "[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. . . . ” John A. Bingham, (R-Ohio) US Congressman, March 9, 1866 Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866), Sec. 1992 of U.S. Revised Statutes (1866).

And then to bring this forward to the modern times on the definition, all we have to do is look to Senate resolution 510 on whether John McCain was a Natural Born Citizen when they all stated unanimously that: Based on the understanding of the pertinent sources of constitutional meaning, it is widely believed that if someone is born to American citizens <----plural they know) anywhere in the world they are natural born citizens.

I would like to point out that one cannot be a natural born citizen when born out of the jurisdiction of the United states unless they are in the employ of the US Government, ie. Ambassadors, military personnel, FBI, CIA any one in the employ of the US Government in any capacity gets an exemption. McCain`s father was an Admiral in the Navy stationed in Panama with his mother when he was born.

We can argue about a lot of things but it is quite clear what the founders intended. Any one that cannot see that or understand that or agree with that, is either deaf, blind and dumb or has an agenda.

It is really just a common sense solution to the problem. One needs to be 100% America citizen, born of two US citizen parents on US soil.