Qualifications for President and the “Natural Born” Citizenship Eligibility Requirement
time of the founding, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 674–75, 18 S.Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. 890 (1898), and thus eligible for the presidency, see, e.g., Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U.S. 163, 165, 84 S.Ct. 1187, 12 L.Ed.2d 218 (1964) (dicta).[1]
Similarly, in dismissing an eligibility case concerning President Obama’s birth in Hawaii, a state appellate court in Indiana, after a thorough review of federal case law, concluded that anyone born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction, regardless of the citizenship of that person’s parents, was a “natural born” citizen eligible to be President:
Based on the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 and the guidance provided by Wong Kim Ark, we conclude that persons born within the borders of the United States are “natural born Citizens” for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents. Just as a person “born within the British dominions [was] a natural born-born subject” at the time of the framing of the U.S. Constitution, so too were those “born in the allegiance of the United States[] natural-born citizens.”[2]
The constitutional history, the nearly unanimous consensus of legal and constitutional scholars, and the consistent, relevant case law thus indicate that every child born in and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States (that is, not children of diplomatic personnel representing a foreign nation or military troops in hostile occupation), is a native born U.S. citizen and thus a “natural born Citizen” eligible to be President under the qualifications clause of the Constitution, regardless of the nationality or citizenship of one’s parents. The legal issues regarding “natural born” citizenship and birth within the United States, without regard to lineage or ancestral bloodline, have been well settled in this country for more than a century, and such concepts date back to, and even pre-date, the founding of the nation.
The weight of more recent federal cases, as well as the majority of scholarship on the subject, also indicates that the term “natural born citizen” would most likely include, as well as native born citizens, those born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents, at least one of whom had previously resided in the United States, or those born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent who, prior to the birth, had met the requirements of federal law for physical presence in the country.[3]
Author Contact Information
Jack Maskell
Legislative Attorney
- ↑ Hollander v. McCain, 566 F.Supp.2d 63, 66 (D.N.H. 2008).
- ↑ Ankeny v. Governor of the State of Indiana, 916 NE2d 678, 688 (2009), petition to transfer jurisdiction denied (Ind. Supreme Court, April 5, 2010).
- ↑ See now 8 U.S.C. §1401(a)–(h). Under current law, at 8 U.S.C. §1401(g), a person born abroad to one U.S. citizen-parent would be a citizen at birth if that parent had resided in the United States for at least five years, two of which were after the time the parent was 14 years of age.
