Natural-born citizen

From Conservapedia

Natural-born citizenship is one of the requirements for someone to serve as President of the United States. The requirement is found in Article II section I of the Constitution: "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...."

Because the Constitution fails to define the term "natural born Citizen", establishment of its precise meaning would fall to Congress or the courts. The only US law that has ever employed the exact term "natural born citizen" is the Naturalization Act of 1790:^[1]

And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: Provided also, That no person heretofore proscribed by any state, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an act of the legislature of the state in which such person was proscribed.

This law was passed by the First Congress, which counted among its members nearly half of the signers of the Constitution (and was signed into law by a president who was also a signer of the Constitution), so it may give some insight into the intention behind this provision. However, the 1790 act was repealed in 1795, and no subsequent law or court decision has clearly defined “natural born Citizen”.

Therefore, there is still discussion over exactly who meets the definition of a natural-born citizen. It is clear that someone who was not a citizen from birth, but acquired citizenship through naturalization, is not one. One view is that all others, meaning anyone who is a citizen from the moment of birth, are natural-born citizens. There are arguments that a third category exists, of those who are citizens from birth by law or status, but are not intended to be considered as natural born. The most common reasons given are that the birth did not take place within the US, or that one of the birth parents was not a US citizen. Precedents indicate that neither of these conditions will prevent someone from attaining the Presidency.

Presidential candidate John McCain was born outside of the US, in the Panama Canal Zone, a territory within Panama administered by the United States,^[2] as a citizen at birth because his parents were US citizens. The Senate passed a nonbinding resolution declaring that he was indeed a natural born citizen.^[3]

Two presidents were born having a father who was not a citizen.

• Chester Arthur was born in the US (though rumored to have been born in Canada), but his father was at that time a citizen of the UK.
• Barack Obama, whose father was a subject of the United Kingdom (that is the British colony of Kenya). However Obama qualifies as a natural born citizen because he was born in Hawaii. As for those who suspect he was born outside the US, he nevertheless meets the criteria, "And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States." That is, his mother was a U.S. citizen and his father did live in Hawaii.

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