Freedomfirst - Natural Born Citizen

NBC – Natural Born Citizen

FreedomFirst ALIPAC Fledgling 2 12-20-08 Another commentator to the NBC blog wrote the following, in pointing to the collaborative nature of the political process in concealing and/or glossing over the NBC impediments of McCain and Obama as the two major parties' candidates: Quote: Zapem Says: December 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm NBC wrote: “Just because the Constitution requires the Senate to quality the eligibility of candidates on Jan 6th (this year Jan 8th)…” I said it before and I’ll say it again, especially since this morning, we uncovered even more proof the Senate was IN ON IT FROM THE BEGINNING. Go back to February and probably even before that, you will see the Senate preparing to introduce S.R. 511, a non-binding resolution declaring John McCain as a “natural born citizen”. But it gets BETTER yet! Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill offered that bill and it was co-sponsored by Obama and Hillary. But McCaskill wasn’t doing this for McCain at all! McCaskill was the lead campaign head for Obama in Missouri per the Missouri Governor! What’s more, she was behind the threats with the prosecutor’s office and the Obama camp in Missouri, to sue and criminalize ANYONE who had anything bad to say about Obama. Remember that? Connect the dots! It was McCaskill and others in the Senate, including Chairman Patrick J. Leahy who already had lawyers submit a brief-like proposal to the Senate, which included arguments for United States vs. Wong Kim Ark. long before anyone realized what was going on. Furthermore, the MSM finally realized this past week that they screwed up and hadn’t investigated as much as should have since the Blagojevich scandal hit and they admitted as much. The video of the MSM is here: http://grou.ps/zapem/home The proof of the Senate manipulating the “natural born citizen” clause is here: http://grou.ps/zapem/wiki/23460 (which now includes an update; an open letter to Stephen Pidgeon, Esq. since I didn’t know if Leo would be back.) Contained in those links is also the Missouri Governor’s warning of the situation and naming Sen. Claire McCaskill and you can also view it direct from here: http://governor.mo.gov/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EkkkVFulkpOzXqGMaj This is no joke. The Senate KNEW exactly what was going on and expected someone to bring up this matter and they tried like hell to shut them up and they still are. If the MSM would grow a pair and at least report this and start demanding answers, maybe we could get to the bottom of it, because the proof is all there. This should be a criminal matter because it’s a

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deliberate coverup at this point with actions taken to further stifle anyone from speaking about it in direct violation of the 1st Amendment.

So, the sequence of events as Obama continued to gain traction in the Democratic primaries with the other frontrunner, Clinton, seems to be this: 1. DNC fires a warning shot over the bow of McCain's ship about his eligibility issues, sometime around February, and things unfold during the campaign itself which "develop" the issue but which aren't very well tracked by MSM. But the issue was in fact an old one, and you can trace it all the way back to 1998 ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/archive/junkie070998.htm Quote: Citizen McCain's Panama Problem? By Ken Rudin Special to washingtonpost.com Thursday, July 9, 1998 Question: I would like to see Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a presidential candidate, but I heard that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. The Constitution requires that a president be a "natural born" citizen of the United States. Is Sen. McCain barred from the presidency? – Steven R. Pruett, Falls Church, Va. Answer: John McCain has more pressing worries than eligibility on the road to the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. After his lead role in pushing campaign-finance and tobacco legislation, both anathema to the Senate GOP leadership, the Arizona senator may have to spend a lot of time trying to prove his party credentials before he ever gets to Iowa or New Hampshire. But is he constitutionally qualified to become president? McCain was indeed born in the Canal Zone, and Article II of the Constitution plainly states that "no person except a natural born Citizen... shall be eligible to the Office of President." Some might define the term "natural-born citizen" as one who was born on United States soil. But the First Congress, on March 26, 1790, approved an act that declared, "The children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens of the United States." That would seem to include McCain, whose parents were both citizens and whose father was a Navy officer stationed at the U.S. naval base in Panama at the time of John's birth in 1936. "He meets the requirement of U.S. citizenship in order to be eligible for president," said McCain spokesperson Nancy Ives. (For the record, McCain says the only thing on his plate is his bid for a third Senate term in November, though he is seen as a shoo-in.) The citizenship question has come up in past presidential campaigns. George Romney, the late Michigan governor and a leading aspirant for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. His support nose-dived following his September 1967 statement that he was "brainwashed" by the U.S. military during a visit to Vietnam. But during the period when he was still being touted as the only Republican who could defeat President Lyndon Johnson, Romney's opponents often raised the issue of his eligibility. William Loeb, the late publisher of the Manchester Union Leader who made his conservative views well known to New Hampshire primary voters, simply dismissed Romney as "Chihuahua George." But Romney was eligible. Romney’s grandfather emigrated to Mexico in 1886 with his three wives and children after Congress outlawed polygamy. Romney and his parents, who retained their U.S. Page 2 of 10

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citizenship, returned to the United States in 1912, the year Mexico erupted into revolution. The future governor didn't arrive in Michigan until 1939, when he was 32 years old. He didn't run for office until 1962. McCain, on the other hand, didn't get to Arizona until 1981, a year before winning election to Congress, when he was 44. In 1986, after two terms in the House, McCain won the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Barry Goldwater, the GOP's presidential nominee in 1964. Ironically, Goldwater was born in Phoenix in 1909 – three years before Arizona became a state. But no one questioned whether he was a "natural-born citizen." Something that people should note, whenever that 1790 law is raised, is that it was very short-lived. A lot of commentary mentions the 1790 law and LEAVES OUT the 1795 REPEALER. Useful links are ... http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=227 which provided this language from 1790: "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 as natural born Citizens" and then this link http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=538 per which, we find that the entire Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat. 103) was repealed by the Naturalization Act of January 29, 1795 (1 Stat. 414) and the relevant clause was re-rendered to read: "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 as Citizens"

THEN, along comes the "revival" of the issue for the 2008 Presidential election: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/politics/28mccain.html Quote: McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out By CARL HULSE Published: February 28, 2008 WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming. Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office. Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates Page 3 of 10

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over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states. “There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.” Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around. But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president. “He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.” The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a naturalborn citizen could be president. Ms. Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of Mr. McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court. Ms. Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office. “They ought to have the same rights,” said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. “There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what ‘natural-born citizen’ means.” Mr. McCain’s situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare Mr. McCain goes more to the interpretation of “natural born” when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law. Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Page 4 of 10

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Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard. It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility. Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.” But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the “natural-born” phrase. Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence. “I don’t think he has any problem whatsoever,” said Mr. Nickles, a McCain supporter. “But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win.” Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time. In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be “unpredictable and unsatisfactory.” “If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain,” Ms. Pryor said in a recent interview. “But it is certainly not a frivolous issue.”

With the above, the idea is planted in the minds of the average reader that "natural born" is all about the SOIL on which one is born, and without reference to the fact that parental citizenship is a component of NBC as well, with particular reference to the citizenship of the FATHER since immigration laws and citizenship laws before the era of women's suffrage were very patrimonial. E.g., an immigrant woman could become naturalized just by getting married... Quote: “any woman who might lawfully be naturalized under existing laws, married, or shall be married to a citizen of the United States, shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen.” [Act of February 10, 1855, 10 Stat. 604, section 2] Page 5 of 10

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11mccain.html?fta=y http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2008/09/gibson-dunn-ass.html 2. Between the 1998 "controversy" and the 2008 "controversy" there were two attempts to float a Constitutional Amendment to change the NBC eligibility requirement for POTUS. One in 2000, which was House Joint Resolution 88 (HJRes 88 ) http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju67306.000/hju67306_0f.htm and the opening statement at hearings before the House Judiciary Committee points to Rep. Barney Frank having been the sponsor of the proposal: Quote: OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CANADY Mr. CANADY. The subcommittee will be in order. The subcommittee meets now to conduct a hearing on H.J.Res. 88, which proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to make eligible for the office of the President a person who has been the United States citizen for 20 years. This amendment, which was introduced by the gentleman from Massachusetts Mr. Frank would change the portion of the Presidential qualifications clause in article II, section 1, clause 5 of the United States Constitution that limits eligibility for the Presidency of the United States to natural-born citizens.

Quite notable, at that hearing, was the testimony of BALINT VAZSONYI, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE AMERICAN FOUNDING, who spoke out AGAINST giving up the NBC eligibility requirement, and from the perspective of an immigrant (from Hungary) who had become a naturalized citizen. The testimony is at the link above. The other proposal was in 2003, and suggestive of the notion that it was intended to help Senator McCain at some future time (since he had been in the running in the GOP's 2000 primaries) is the fact of who introduced it. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20041008.html Although the article's generalized discussion is full of characterizations about the "general consensus of scholars" (which are a bunch of hooey when one digs through actual case decisions, with particular attention to Perkins v. Elg (1939) in which the definition of NBC appears to be part of the RULING as to the status of Marie Elizabeth Elg as an NBC due to birth on soil to TWO parents who were BOTH naturalized at the time), it offers this information about the 2003 effort at amendment which went to one day of hearings. Quote: On July 10, 2003, Senator Orrin Hatch (R. UT) introduced the proposed amendment as Senate Joint Resolution 15. His proposal did get a day of hearings (which are available online at the Judiciary Committee's site,

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and include a statement by FindLaw columnist Akhil Reed Amar). It is not clear how seriously this matter - which has been raised in a rump session - is being taken. But even having the amendment considered is encouraging. The Hatch proposal is very simple: SECTION 1. A person who is a citizen of the United States, who has been for 20 years a citizen of the United States, and who is otherwise eligible to the Office of President, is not ineligible to that Office by reason of not being a native born citizen of the United States. SECTION 2. This article shall not take effect unless it has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States not later than 7 years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

3. Finally, in April 2008, with the Constitutional Amendment Resolutions springing from both the House (2000) and Senate (2003) not having gotten anywhere, and with the DNC firing off its warning shots to McCain but more, in reality, aware of its own looming problems with Obama which are a little more nuanced (dual citizenship) or speculative (Hillary supporters and maybe even Hillary-hired private investigators were probing into Obama's murky personal history with Kenya & Indonesia ties), the deal gets sprung. The Congressional Record publishes the "strained" and biased research of Laurence Tribe and Ted Olson to support McCain's "case" as a NBC and the McGaskill sponsored "sense of the Senate" Resolution goes on to the unanimous consent agenda for the Senate. http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200804/041008c.html Quote: Senators: McCain Is A ‘Natural Born Citizen’ Senators Introduce Resolution To Make Clear Senate’s Position On Candidate’s Status WASHINGTON (Thursday, April 10, 2008) – Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Claire McCaskill (DMo.) today introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the U.S. Senate that presidential candidate and current Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a ‘natural born Citizen,’ as specified in the Constitution and eligible to run for President. In February, The New York Times published a report calling into question the legality of McCain’s presidential run. McCain was born to American citizens stationed on an American Naval base in the Panama Canal Zone. He has since served in the U.S. Navy, and, since 1983, has served in the U.S. Congress. “Because he was born to American citizens, there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen,” said Leahy. “I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the Senate.” “It is silly for anyone to argue that Senator McCain is not eligible to become president,” said McCaskill. “I would hope that this is something we can all agree on, for goodness sakes.” At a Judiciary Committee hearing on April 3, Leahy asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, himself a former Federal judge, if he had doubts that McCain was eligible to serve as Page 7 of 10

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President. “My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen,” Chertoff replied. “That is mine, too,” said Leahy. The text of the resolution and Leahy’s remarks follow. ##### 110TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. RES. __ Recognizing that John Sidney McCain, III, is a natural born citizen. _______________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Mrs. MCCASKILL (for herself and Mr. LEAHY, Mr. OBAMA, Mr. COBURN, Mrs. CLINTON, and Mr. WEBB) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on _____________ RESOLUTION Recognizing that John Sidney McCain, III, is a natural born citizen. Whereas the Constitution of the United States requires that, to be eligible for the Office of the President, a person must be a ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ of the United States; Whereas the term ‘‘natural born Citizen’’, as that term appears in Article II, Section 1, is not defined in the Constitution of the United States; Whereas there is no evidence of the intention of the Framers or any Congress to limit the constitutional rights of children born to American citizens serving in the military nor to prevent those children from serving as their country’s President; Whereas such limitations would be inconsistent with the purpose and intent of the ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ clause of the Constitution of the United States, as evidenced by the First Congress’s own statute defining the term ‘‘natural born Citizen’’; Whereas the well-being of all citizens of the United States is preserved and enhanced by the men and women who are assigned to serve our country outside of our national borders; Whereas previous presidential candidates were born outside of the United States of America and were understood to be eligible to be President; Whereas John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That John Sidney McCain, III, is a ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States.

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Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Committee On The Judiciary, On The Introduction Of A Senate Resolution April 10, 2008 Today I join Senator Claire McCaskill in introducing a resolution to express the common sense of everyone here that Senator McCain is a “natural born Citizen,” as the term is used in the Constitution of the United States. Our Constitution contains three requirements for a person to be eligible to be President – the person must have reached the age of 35; must have resided in America for 14 years; and must be a ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ of the United States. Certainly there is no doubt that Senator McCain is of sufficient years on this earth and in this country given that he has been serving in Washington for over 25 years. However, some pundits have raised the question of whether he is a “natural born Citizen” because he was born outside of the official borders of the United States. John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American Naval base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. Numerous legal scholars have looked into the purpose and intent of the “natural born Citizen” requirement. As far as I am aware, no one has unearthed any reason to think that the Framers would have wanted to limit the rights of children born to military families stationed abroad or that such a limited view would serve any noble purpose enshrined in our founding document. Based on the understanding of the pertinent sources of constitutional meaning, it is widely believed that if someone is born to American citizens anywhere in the world they are natural born citizens. It is interesting to note that another previous presidential candidate, George Romney, was also born outside of the United States. He was widely understood to be eligible to be President. Senator Barry Goldwater was born in a U.S territory that later became the State of Arizona so some even questioned his eligibility. Certainly the millions of Americans who voted for these two Republican candidates believed that they were eligible to assume the office of the President. The same is true today. Because he was born to American citizens, there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen. I recently asked Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, a former Federal judge, if he had any doubts in his mind. He did not. I ask unanimous consent that the relevant excerpt from the Judiciary Committee hearing where Secretary Chertoff testified be made a part of the record. I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the Senate and I thank the Senator from Missouri for working with me on this. ##### EXCERPT OF SECRETARY CHERTOFF TESTIMONY FROM APRIL 2, 2008: *** Chairman Leahy. We will come back to that. I would mention one other thing, if I might, Senator Specter. Let me just ask this: I believe--and we have had some question in this Committee to have a special law passed declaring that Senator McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal, that he meets the constitutional requirement to be President. I fully believe he does. I have never had any question in my mind that he meets our constitutional requirement. You are a former Federal judge. You are the head of the agency that executes Federal immigration law. Do you have any doubt in your mind-I mean, I have none in mine. Do you have any doubt in your mind that he is constitutionally eligible to become President?

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Secretary Chertoff. My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen. Chairman Leahy. That is mine, too. Thank you. #####

So, there you have it, in 3 separate segments. A 10 year history of McCain's Presidential ambitions, the perception that the NBC clause would be a problem for his eligibility, the probable desire of Democrats (Barney Frank) to open up the POTUS to an "immigrant" candidate since immigration leniency in general seems to be Democratic dogma as that party seemingly caters to "Gimme Nation" of entitlements programs in return for votes, the failed efforts at amending the Constitution, the back-and-forth "signals" between the RNC and the DNC as the 2008 primaries were waged with two frontrunners BOTH afflicted with ineligibility emerging, and the unmitigated gall in presuming that a non-binding SENSE OF THE SENATE Resolution, relying on a biased piece of legal research, published on the same day in the Congressional Record, authored by Tribe-Olson who cherry-picked statutes and caselaw to "bolster the bias", could essentially fulfill the role of the Judiciary in interpreting laws and the role of the 50 states' Legislatures in amending the Constitution. McCain doesn't elevate the issue by attacking Obama. Obama doesn't elevate the issue by attacking McCain. The mainstream U.S. media -- now owned largely by foreign-based conglomerates like France's Vivendi, and Germany's Bertelsmann, and Australia's Murdoch/News Corporation, and where "homegrown" in the case of ABC-TV is now owned by the same folks who indulge in FANTASYLAND with motion picture studios and operations like DISNEYLAND and DISNEY WORLD -- is "out to lunch" when it comes to objective reporting. They only "report" what gets raised by the candidates or what will suit their own bias. FOX News and its commentators don't raise issues that will hurt McCain. MSNBC's fleet of Obama-worshippers don't raise issues that will hurt Obama. Even Rush Limbaugh and some of the other voices-of-the-Right were not going to throw jabs that could hurt McCain as the "lesser of two evils" in a national race where only ONE out of TWO is deemed to have a"realistic shot" at winning. Pulitzer Prize ought to go to the first reporter, from the mainstream media, who connects all these dots that are visible, and searches out some of the backroom dealings that put things in motion, and has a publisher with the guts to let him publish it. The Great Election Fraud of 2008. Stick a fork in it.

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