Sylvia Thompson
More on who is eligible to be an American president
FacebookTwitter
By Sylvia Thompson
January 22, 2016

In my recent post regarding the unresolved issue of who is eligible to be President, I stated that natural born citizens must be born of American-born parents. A reader who is among those hoping to resolve this issue in the interest of preserving the Constitution corrected my assumption. His explanation also clears up, at least for me, why Donald Trump is not in the same position as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, or Barack Obama as presidential candidates.

It seems that a "natural born citizen" need only be born to "citizens" not necessarily to two parents both born in America (which is what I assumed made one "natural born"). Both parents, however, must be citizens either born in America or naturalized to that status. Trump's mother was apparently naturalized before he was born, thus establishing her citizenship, and his father was American born. That situation does not apply to the other four men. Either one or both parents were not citizens at the time of their births.

Given that the Founders were concerned about loyalty to the new nation, I would have assumed they would require both parents of potential presidential candidates to be American born, as well. No foreign connection would seem to diminish the chances of mixed-loyalty in my view.

After reading this responder's comments, however, and re-reading Publius Huldah's interpretation[1] of the Founders' stipulation regarding natural born citizenship, I have a clearer understanding of what in my mind is still a somewhat muddled issue. But simply stated, the Founders expected President and Vice President to be born of citizens. And that meant one's parents must be citizens, either by birth or by naturalization, at the time of the candidate's birth.

I can easily understand the Founders' concerns about loyalty to the young nation. We need only consider what we have in Barack Obama, who holds no loyalty to America. He is the poster child for what the Founders intended to avoid – a person with a foreign-born father who himself despised the West and all that it stands for, and a mother and maternal grandparents (who reared him) seemingly sympathetic to Communist influence.

Obama's grandfather introduced him to a friend, Frank Marshall Davis, who became something of a mentor to the youth. Davis, however, according to some commentary was closely associated with the American Communist Party.[2]

As I stated in my earlier article, I am at the point where I want only to see a President in place who is willing to do all that is humanly possible to reverse the harm that Obama and his administration have done to this nation, whoever that person may be. I also fervently hope that this issue can be resolved one way or the other as to who is lawfully eligible (according to the Constitution) to run for President and Vice President of the United States. Who knows, we just might be able to avoid another Barack Obama.

A resolution cannot be achieved by relying on conflicting positions from legal professionals, regardless of how many are on either side of the issue. It's a matter of constitutional interpretation of the law, and the Founders provided for such interpretation through the legal system.

Admittedly, I have very little faith in that legal system (including the courts) given how the Obama administration has corrupted it, but the interpretive branch of government is the means through which this issue must be resolved. We can only hope that fact, sooner or later, filters out to the people who are supposed to know what they're doing. And sooner would be preferable.

NOTES:

[1]  http://shar.es/1pO76X, The Constitution, Vattel, and "Natural Born Citizen" by Publius Huldah


© Sylvia Thompson

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Sylvia Thompson

Sylvia Thompson is a black conservative writer whose aim is to counter the liberal spin on issues pertaining to race and culture... (more)

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Sylvia Thompson: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
Flashback: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Jerry Newcombe
Church should be about worship, not entertainment

Laurie Roth
Trump, the truth, and America will prevail in spite of leftist evil plans

Cliff Kincaid
Terrorist attack in Baltimore

Tom DeWeese
DOJ ignores 2nd Amendment

Linda Goudsmit
CHAPTER 11: Critical Race Theory: A species of the ideological thought genus Marxism

Pete Riehm
They have tried everything to destroy Trump, but assassination

Tom DeWeese
When your red state governor dresses in blue

Rev. Mark H. Creech
Revelation Chapter 22: Eternal recompense

Tom DeWeese
YIMBYs, workforce housing, and community land trusts: All means to an end to private property

Jerry Newcombe
The vice president visits an abortion clinic—and the people yawn?

Pete Riehm
Like our Commander-in-Chief, America is clueless, feckless, and powerless

Selwyn Duke
Did anti-white, DEI bias steal a state final spot from a white basketball team?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites