Obama Citizenship

Mario Apuzzo on 14th Amendment, Dual Citizenship

By Phil

Mario Apuzzo, attorney for the Plaintiffs in Kerchner v. Obama, had written two pieces on President Obama’s eligibility that are of special interest to those concerned over the President’s actual citizenship and how the 14th Amendment plays into Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5.

In the earlier article, Mr. Apuzzo begins accordingly:

The error committed by those answering the question of what is an Article II “natural born Citizen” is when they equate such a Citizen with a “natural born subject” under English common law, a born “citizen” under the 14th Amendment, what our courts have declared to be a U.S. “citizen” during the pre- or post-14th Amendment period, and what Congress defines by statute to be a born “citizen” of the United States. Article II “natural born Citizen” is not the same as ?natural born subject? or “citizen” as these terms are used in these contexts. Rather, it has a meaning that only applies to the Offices of President and Vice President and which has its origins in natural law and in the law of nations.

The Framers did not discuss the meaning of “natural born Citizen” during the Constitutional debates. Nor does the Constitution define the term. We know that for the future, the Framers did not permit just a “Citizen” to be eligible to be President, for they grandfathered a “Citizen” to be President only if alive at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. Thereafter, the candidate would have to be a ?natural born Citizen.?

His second article discusses the President’s dual citizenship…

Assuming that Obama was born in the United States, he was not only born a dual national of the United States and Great Britain, but at present he continues to be such. Some maintain that American law on citizenship cannot be subjected to any foreign law. But such an argument does not resolve the question of Obama?s dual nationality, for each nation has the sovereign right to make its own citizenship laws and one nation cannot deny another nation that right. This point can be better understood when we consider that McCain was born in Panama to U.S. citizen parents and U.S. citizenship law declared him a U.S. citizen even though he was born in Panama and Panamanian law may have declared him a citizen of Panama. Neither Panama nor any other nation questioned the United States’ right to pass a law that gave McCain U.S. citizenship by descent from his parents even though he was born in Panama. Great Britain, being a sovereign nation, has the same right as does the United States to pass such citizenship laws. Now let us examine the British law that applies to Obama and his father and which makes Obama a British citizen not only at the time of his birth in 1961 but still today.

Both articles are certainly worth the time for a full read. And concerning the President’s citizenzhip, I would also like to draw your attention to the following from FactCheck.org, wherein they admit that, at birth, the President was, at best, a dual citizen:

In other words, at the time of his birth, Barack Obama Jr. was both a U.S. citizen (by virtue of being born in Hawaii) and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (or the UKC) by virtue of being born to a father who was a citizen of the UKC. …

As a citizen of the UKC who was born in Kenya, Obama’s father automatically received Kenyan citizenship via subsection (1). So given that Obama qualified for citizen of the UKC status at birth and given that Obama’s father became a Kenyan citizen via subsection (1), it follows that Obama did in fact have Kenyan citizenship after 1963.

A current listing of eligibility lawsuits can be found here.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).