URBAN DICTIONARY: NATURAL BORN CITIZEN

1. Natural Born Citizen

1. Those born of parents who are citizens.

2. A person born of American parents. Thus a person born abroad of American

parents, according to the Constitution, would be eligible to the office of President.

3. One whose citizenship is established by the jurisdiction which the United States
already has over the parents of the child, not what is thereafter acquired by choice of
residence in this country.

4. Those persons born whose father the United States already has an established
jurisdiction over, i.e., born to father's who are themselves citizens of the United States.

5. One who is a citizen by no act of law.

If a person owes their citizenship to some act of law, they cannot be considered a
natural-born citizen. This leads us to defining natural-born citizen under the laws of
nature.

Children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights.
The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children.

In order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a

citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and
not his country. Vattel, The Law of Nations: I. XIX. § 212.

The Framers were not men who dropped words in by accident. They thought about
every word. They argued about every word.

By drawing on the term so well known from English law, the Founders were
recognizing the law of hereditary, rather than territorial allegiance. Alexander Porter
Morse, "Natural-Born-Citizen of the United States: Eligibility for the Office of
President," Albany Law Journal, vol.66 (1904), pp. 99. The framers thought it wise, in
view of the probable influx of European immigration, to provide that the President
should at least be the child of citizens owing allegiance to the United States at the time
of his birth. Morse, op. cit, p. 99.
The presidential eligibility clause was scarcely intended to bar the children of
American parentage, whether born at sea or in foreign territory. The Founders and the
first Congress, which passed the 1790 Naturalization Act, defined a "natural born"
citizen as one whose citizenship is established by the jurisdiction which the United
States already has over the parents of the child, not what is thereafter acquired by
choice of residence in this country. Morse, op. cit., p. 99. Whoever drew the Act
followed closely the various parliamentary statues of Great Britain; and its language in
this relation indicates that the first congress entertained and declared that children of
American parentage, wherever born, were within the constitutional designation,
"natural-born citizens." The act is declaratory: but the reason that such children are
natural born remains; that is, their American citizenship is natural -- the result of
parentage -- and is not artificial or acquired by compliance with legislative
requirements. Morse, op. cit., p. 100.

If the Founders had not wanted an expansive definition of citizenship, it would only
have been necessary to say, 'no person, except a native-born citizen.' Morse, op. cit., p.
99.

It should be noted that Morse is reluctant to accept one implication of the dictionary
definition of "native-born," namely, that it includes people born in the United States
even if their parents are not citizens.

If you are born of American parents, you are a Natural Born Citizen.

2. Natural Born Citizen

Religion has been closely identified with our history and government. SCHOOL DIST.
OF ABINGTON TP. V. SCHEMPP, 374 U. S. 203 (1963); VAN ORDEN V. PERRY, 545
U.S. 677 (2005). The history of man is inseparable from the history of religion. ENGEL
V. VITALE, 370 U. S. 421 (1962); SCHOOL DIST. OF ABINGTON TP. V. SCHEMPP,
374 U. S. 203 (1963).

Our Constitution is a covenant running from the first generation of Americans to us

and then to future generations. It is a coherent succession. Each generation must learn
anew that the Constitution's written terms embody ideas and aspirations that must
survive more ages than one. PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHEASTERN PA. v.
CASEY, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).

Covenant is a religious concept, originating in the ancient Near Eastern religions.

Covenant is also a critical component of Christianity. Indeed, the very salvation
offered through Jesus Christ is called the New Covenant. See, e.g., Luke 22:20. From
Christianity, the idea of covenant was adopted by the American Founding Fathers:
'Viewing the United States Constitution as the critical expression of the American
constitutional tradition, we move back in time, seeking the less differentiated, more
embryonic expression of what is in that document. Our search takes us to the earliest
state constitution, then to colonial documents of foundation that are essentially
constitutional such as the Pilgrim Code of Law, and then to proto-constitutions such
as the Mayflower Compact. The political covenants written by English colonists in
America lead us to the church covenants written by radical Protestants in the late
1500s and early 1600s, and these in turn lead us back to the Covenant tradition of the
Old Testament. The American constitutional tradition derives much of its form and
content from the Judeo-Christian tradition as interpreted by the radical Protestant
sects to which belonged so many of the original European settlers of British North
America.' Donald S. Lutz, The Origins of American Constitutionalism 6-7 (1982). One
covenant principle that we see plainly in scripture is that a covenant may not be added
to without mutual consent. We see God Himself revealing this principle in His
covenant with Israel: "Do not add to what I command you." Deuteronomy 4:2. Any
judge or justice who makes up out of whole cloth a new fundamental right, or
arrogates to himself authority or power not granted by the Constitution, certainly adds
to our national covenant, and thus becomes a covenant breaker.

In his landmark book, The Origins of American Constitutionalism, political scientist

Donald Lutz reminds us that the genesis of a society's political values predates its
written political documents. Indeed, a society's deepest values are born in its people's
most ancient, primal, and unspoken worldview: 'Essentially a people share symbols
and myths that provide meaning to their existence together and link them to some
transcendent order. They can thus act together and answer the basic political
questions: through what procedures do we reach collective decisions? By what
standards do we judge our actions? What qualities or characteristics do we strive to
maintain among ourselves? What kind of people do we wish to become? What
qualities or characteristics do we seek or require in those who lead us? Far from being
the repository of irrationality, these shared symbols and myths are the basis upon
which collective, rational action is possible. Since these myths and symbols are
frequently expressed in political documents, they tend to structure the form,
determine the content, and define the meaning of the words in these documents. . . .
By studying the political documents of a people, we can watch the gradual unfolding,
elaboration and alteration of the myths and symbols that define them.' Through
detailed empirical research, Lutz traces the roots of the core American constitutional
tradition back in time to earlier state constitutions, colonial charters, English church
covenants, and, ultimately, the Old Testament. Viewed in this fashion, the U.S.
Constitution is only the latest written expression of Western values that have been
developed and modified over thousands of years.

The further back one goes in American history, the more saturated with Hebraic
references and allusions one finds American culture to be. Ironically, it is this Hebraic
milieu rather than one grounded in the Christian New Testament, which most fueled
the fires of motivation and imagination among American Christian colonists and
founders of the Republic. Thus, Cecil Roth could write that were we to 'deprive
modern Europe and America of their Hebraic heritage . . . the result would be barely
recognizable.'

As scholars of religion and American history have repeatedly shown, American

national identity has been shaped by the biblical language chosen by the first settlers,
leaders, and preachers to emphasize both covenant and apocalypse. Of particular
appeal to early Americans - from the Puritans to the architects of the American
constitution - was the text of Deuteronomy, outlining the covenant between God and
Israel. Like the Israelites, early Americans understood themselves to be entering into
the Promised Land. Following the covenantal pattern outlined in Deuteronomy of
prescribed moral and legal obligations to be kept by the people of Israel in return for
God's blessing, the settlers understood themselves to be obligated to do God's will in
return for God's blessings

The Puritans and their covenantal documents have had a lasting influence on
American political life. As Sacvan Bercovitch, a scholar of American literature, puts it,
'Their influence appears most clearly in the extraordinary persistence of a rhetoric
grounded in the Bible, and in the way that Americans keep returning to that rhetoric,
especially in times of crisis, as a source of cohesion and continuity.' Some scholars
have gone as far as to argue that the covenantal model was foundational for American
political theory and practice.

Since Biblical times, it has been common practice to preclude foreigners from serving
as political leaders. The Torah dictates, 'Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee,
whom YHVH thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king
over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.'

As Joseph Story observed in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United

States permitting a citizen, other than a natural born citizen, to be President of the
United States was an exception to "the great fundamental policy of all governments, to
exclude foreign influence from their executive councils and duties." III J. Story,
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States Section 1473 (Boston: Little,
Brown: 1833). This "fundamental policy," in turn, was derived from the law of Moses
which prohibited anyone, but a natural born citizen of Israel, from being king.
Deuteronomy 17:14-15.

The basis of a natural-born requirement traces back to the Torah, where Moses
prophesied about the people of Israel getting a king. The whole notion of a natural-
born citizen is designed for the purpose of making sure that the chief executive would
not have politically divided loyalties.
The biblical text consistently affirms that God reserves for himself the right of
choosing kings and prophets and of raising up judges (Dt 17:14-20; 18:18; Jdg 3:15).
Deuteronomy 17:15 gives "firm yet emphatic permission" to Israel to have a king.
YHVH's act of choosing a king serves as legitimizing him. The text stipulates that the
king must be an Israelite and not a foreigner.

Natural Born status was a requirement to minimize international intrigue and prevent
the highest office in the land being held by someone with foreign allegiances.

The Framers were all citizens, and most had prior loyalty to the King of England, once
being British subjects. Because the U.S. was a newly formed nation, they exempted
themselves from the natural-born citizen requirement by adding a grandfather clause.
Martin Van Buren, born on December 5, 1782, was the first American President not
born a British subject. Before he served in 1837, his seven presidential predecessors
were eligible to serve because they were citizens at the time the Constitution was
adopted. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, wrote a letter to George
Washington on July 25, 1787, indicating that he feared the possibility that the
commander-in-chief could devolve upon someone who was the subject of a foreign
power at the time of the birth: "Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and
seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the
administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the
Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any
but a natural born Citizen." Historians agree that fear that a foreign ruler might
someday be imported to reign over the United States prompted Jay's letter.

According to James Kent the relationship of a person to a nation was, like the
relationship between husband and wife, parent and child, "derived from the law of
nature," not from positive law. II J. Kent, Commentaries on American Law 5 (Claytor's
Pub. Unabridged Ed. 1827). Thus, a person born to parents whose covenant allegiance
to a nation had previously been established was a "natural born citizen," born into the
civil covenant, just like a child born into the marriage covenant of his father and
mother. Such a person need not swear allegiance to become a citizen, for his
allegiance is determined by birth. In contrast, a person born to parents in covenant
allegiance to another nation could become a "naturalized” citizen, but only by
swearing allegiance to another nation.

In order to be considered a Natural Born Citizen, both parents had to be U.S. Citizens
at the time of birth. Thus, the 'grandfather clause'. The intent of our founding fathers
was and is clear, that no Commander In Chief would have the potential for dual
allegiances. Being 'born' with dual citizenship, and possible allegiances to Mexico,
Kenya, or any other nation would thus not disqualify one from becoming a Senator,
Congressman, or even Governor, but when it comes to POTUS and CIC the
Constitution was very specific. If there was no difference then the Constitution would
not contain the term "Natural Born Citizen" in Article II, and merely "Citizen" in
Article I.

3. Natural Born Citizen

What is a "natural born" citizen? An obvious interpretation of a "natural born" person

would be a child born in the United States to American parents. Likewise, a
"naturalized” citizen, that is a person born in a foreign country to foreign parents who
later acquired American citizenship through naturalization, would not be eligible to
serve as President because that person would not be a “natural born” citizen. What
about a child born in a foreign country to American parents?

As Judge Story suggests, the proper way in which to interpret the eligibility clause
under the circumstances would be to look at its original purpose, and to adopt that
interpretation which "best harmonizes with the nature and objects, the scope and
design, of the instrument.” Although the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention
and the authors of The Federalist did not discuss at length the eligibility clause, we
know from reason and experience, as Story explained, that "the great fundamental
policy of all governments" is "to exclude foreign influence from their executive
councils." This, he observed, "cuts off all chances for ambitious foreigners, who might
otherwise be intriguing for the office; and interposes a barrier against those corrupt
interferences of foreign governments in executive elections, which have inflicted the
most serious evils upon the elective monarchies of Europe." It was thought dangerous,
in other words, to make the presidency available to a person who might have just
recently come to the United States and might still feel an allegiance to a king, a czar,
or a foreign government.

The term "natural born citizen" in the Constitution draws on a long history in British
common law. For example, a law passed in Britain in 1677 law says that "natural born"
citizens include people born overseas to British citizens. This usage was undoubtedly
known to John Jay, who apparently suggested the "natural born citizen" wording and
who was the father of children born overseas while he was serving as a diplomat. This
wording also appears in the Naturalization Act of 1790, which was passed by the first
Congress, a Congress dominated by the Founding Fathers.

The Nationality Act of 1790, passed by the first Congress, stated that "children of
citizens of the United States that may be born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the
United States shall be considered as natural born citizens." That language did not
remain in subsequent laws governing citizenship.

One authority on the presidency is confident that the principle survives. In the 1957
edition of his book, "The Presidency," Edward S. Corwin of Princeton University wrote
that "the general sense of the provision of the 1790 act has been continued in force to
this day."

The Annotated Constitution, prepared by the Library of Congress, cites only one
authority on this question in its most recent issue, published in 1963. It refers to a
1950 analysis written for the Cornell Law Quarterly by Warren Freeman of the Rutgers
University Law School faculty.

Freeman argued that "a foreign-born child of American parents can rightly aspire to
the position of president and hold such high office in accord with the eligibility
requirements laid down both under common law principles and the entire body of
statutory law." He quoted heavily from an article written for the Albany Law Journal in
1904 by Alexander Porter Morse, whom he described as one of the foremost legal
scholars on citizenship laws. Morse had written that the authors of the Constitution
"generally used precise language" and would have used the term, "native born
citizens" if they had meant to exclude from the presidency citizens born abroad of
American parents.

The Framers were not men who dropped words in by accident. They thought about
every word. They argued about every word. No word was unnecessarily used, or
needlessly added.

The children of American citizens born abroad were always natural born citizens. It is
grossly incorrect to conclude that "natural-born citizen" applies to everybody born in
the United States, irrespective of circumstances. It is grossly incorrect to conclude that
everybody born in the United States, irrespective of circumstances, is eligible to the
Presidency, while the children of American citizens, born abroad, are not.

If the meaning of the text is clear, the inquiry ends. A natural born citizen is a person
born of American parents. Thus a person born abroad of American parents, according
to the Constitution, would be eligible to the office of President. This wording of the
Constitution is believed to have been adopted as a tribute to Alexander Hamilton,
who was born in the British West Indies.

4. Natural Born Citizen

1. The language of the Constitution is unambiguous. The definition of "natural-born"

is Res Ipsa Loquitur, "the thing speaks for itself," not by any statutory definition.

2. Natural-born citizenship is derived through birth to citizen parents. It is founded on,

or derived from, the law of nature, not from positive (statutory man-made) law.
3. Congress cannot statutorily create natural-born citizens. 'Natural' is based on
natural law, not statute. The same can be said about marriage between man and wife.
No law or statute is required to define a natural state.

4. A child born of an American mother and an alien father cannot be a natural born
citizen.

5. The term "natural-born" was commonly understood and there was no reason to
define the term. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, following the
American Revolution, the term was well known to mean those born of citizens, most
of whom had yet to be born.

The Constitution is certain and fixed. It contains the permanent will of the people, and
is the supreme law of the land. The Constitution is stable and permanent, not to be
worked upon by the temper of the times, nor to rise and fall with the tide of events. In
expounding the Constitution of the United States, every word must have its due force,
and appropriate meaning; for it is evident from the whole instrument, that no word
was unnecessarily used, or needlessly added.

A provision of the Constitution does not admit of two distinctly opposite

interpretations. It does not mean one thing at one time and an entirely different thing
at another time.

The whole aim of construction, as applied to a provision of the Constitution, is to

discover the meaning, to ascertain and give effect to the intent of its framers and the
people who adopted it. The necessities which gave birth to the Constitution, the
controversies which preceded its formation, and the conflicts of opinion which were
settled by its adoption, may properly be taken into view for the purpose of tracing to
its source any particular provision of the Constitution in order thereby to be enabled
to correctly interpret its meaning.

On every question of construction we should carry ourselves back to the time, when
the constitution was adopted; recollect the spirit manifested in the debates; and
instead of trying to find, what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented
against it, conform to the probable one, in which it passed.

The history of the times, the state of things existing when the provision was framed
and adopted, should be looked to in order to ascertain the mischief and the remedy.
As nearly as possible, we should place ourselves in the condition of those who framed
and adopted it. And if the meaning be at all doubtful, the doubt should be resolved,
wherever reasonably possible to do so, in a way to forward the evident purpose with
which the provision was adopted.
The language of the Constitution is to be read not as barren words found in a
dictionary but as symbols of historic experience illumined by the presuppositions of
those who employed them. Not what words did Madison and Hamilton use, but what
was it in their minds which they conveyed?

To ascertain the meaning of a constitutional provision or rule of procedure we first

look to the normal, plain meaning of the language. The intent of the framers is first
sought from the terminology used in the provision, with each word being given its
ordinary and popularly understood meaning.

Since Constitutions are the basic and organic law, and are meant to be known and
understood by all the people, the words used should be given the meaning which
would be given to them in common and ordinary usage by the average man in
interpreting them in relation to every day affairs.

Common sense is the foundation of all authorities, of the laws themselves, and of their
construction. Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should,
therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not
to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean
everything or nothing at pleasure. The Constitution was written to be understood by
the voters; its words and phrases were used in their normal and ordinary as
distinguished from technical meaning; where the intention is clear, there is no room
for construction and no excuse for interpolation or addition.

If the language is clear and unambiguous, we need not look beyond the provision's
terms to inform our analysis. If the words are not ambiguous, the inquiry is
terminated, for the Court is not at liberty to search beyond the Constitution itself
where the intention of the framers is clearly demonstrated by the phraseology utilized.

It is axiomatic that where the language of a Constitution is clear and unambiguous,

there can be no resort to construction to attribute to the founders a purpose or intent
not manifest in its letter. The constitution is an instrument from the people and a
construction thereof should effectuate their purpose from the words employed in the
document; and the courts may not color it by the addition of words or the ingrafting of
their views as to how it should be written.

The constitutional words deserve deference and precise definition. When a strict
interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the
interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are
allowed to control its meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the
government of individual men who, for the time being, have power to declare what
the Constitution is according to their own views of what it ought to mean.
The purpose and object sought to be attained by the framers of the constitution is to
be looked for, and the will and intent of the people who ratified it is to be made
effective. As nearly as possible, we should place ourselves in the condition of those
who framed and adopted it. On every question of construction we should carry
ourselves back to the time, when the constitution was adopted; recollect the spirit
manifested in the debates; and instead of trying to find, what meaning may be
squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one, in which
it passed.

We are bound to interpret the constitution in the light of the law as it existed at the
time it was adopted. We must place ourselves in the position of the men who framed
and adopted the Constitution, and inquire what they must have understood to be the
meaning and scope of its provisions. The necessities which gave birth to the
Constitution, the controversies which preceded its formation, and the conflicts of
opinion which were settled by its adoption, may properly be taken into view for the
purpose of tracing to its source any particular provision of the Constitution, in order
thereby to be enabled to correctly interpret its meaning.

The line we must draw between the permissible and the impermissible is one which
accords with history and faithfully reflects the understanding of the Founding Fathers.
In construing the Constitution we are compelled to give it such interpretation as will
secure the result which was intended to be accomplished by those who framed it and
the people who adopted it.

Where there is no ambiguity in the words, there is no room for construction.

Language is ambiguous if it admits of being understood in more than one way, refers
to two or more things simultaneously, is difficult to comprehend, is of doubtful
import, or lacks clearness and definiteness. The language of the Constitution where
clear and unambiguous must be given its plain evident meaning.

Where language is clear and unambiguous, any inquiry into intent is unnecessary, and
statute must be applied as written.

If the meaning of the text is clear, the inquiry ends.

As has been repeatedly declared by the courts the best rule for interpreting the
technical terms employed in the Constitution is to give to them the meaning which
they had at the time that instrument was framed and adopted.

The framers of the Constitution were not mere visionaries, toying with speculations or
theories, but practical men dealing with the facts of political life as they understood
them: putting into form the government they were creating and prescribing, in
language clear and intelligible, the powers that government was to take.
As men whose intentions require no concealment generally employ the words which
most directly and aptly express the ideas they intend to convey, the enlightened
patriots who framed our Constitution, and the people who adopted it, must be
understood to have employed words in their natural sense, and to have intended what
they have said.

There is nothing ambiguous in the term "natural-born". There is nothing doubtful in

the words themselves, nothing ambiguous, nothing to be explained, and, therefore, no
room for construction.

The definition of "natural-born" is Res Ipsa Loquitur, "facts speak for themselves".
Congress cannot statutorily create natural-born citizens. 'Natural' is based on natural
law, not statute. There is no court ruling on natural born because it is under natural
law. The same can be said about marriage between man and wife. It is under natural
law. That's why there's resistance to writing a law defining marriage as between a man
and a woman. No law or statute is required to define a natural state.

Natural Born Citizenship is founded on the law of nature, not positive (statutory man-
made) law. Natural-born citizenship is derived through birth to citizen parents.

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