boofhead wrote:
The only persons who must be natural born are the President and the Vice President. It is not necessary to be natural born to be a Senator or Dog Catcher. Why is it so hard to distinguish the difference between natural born and citizen? There are three types of citizenship: Native born (born in the USA), natural born (born of a US citizen father) and naturalized.
The Constitution specifically separated the requirement from citizen to natural born citizen for those offices for good reason. If being born in the US made you natural born then there was no reason for the clause to be added; the fact that it was added means that "citizen" is not the same as "natural born citizen". The definition of natural born has never been challenged in the courts and indeed it is not a matter for the court but is one for the Congress to decide. They too have never made a ruling. There have been a few attempts to remove the requirement but this also has not been done, which shows that it has meaning, even though it was ignored for Obama. The definition came from the English common law and according to William Blackstone, a recognized expert in this, he wrote in 1765 that "Natural-born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England". Blackstone added that offspring who are not inhabitants may also be natural born subjects. But by several more modern statutes ... all children, born out of the king's ligeance, whose fathers were natural-born subjects, are now natural-born subjects themselves, to all intents and purposes, without any exception; unless their said fathers were attainted, or banished beyond sea, for high treason; or were then in the service of a prince at enmity with Great Britain.
It was felt to be super important that anybody running for the job of President have sole allegiance to the USA, and if he/she had a foreign father he would be influenced by that relationship. I think this has been proven to be true by Obama's reign.
The only persons who must be natural born are the ... (
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I believe it is "parents" not just father. And you are right allegiance was the purpose of 'natural born, versus citizen.