[EL] Who is a "Natural Born Citizen

[Robin Chand]

Apologies - I pressed "send" too soon.

A clarification on what I meant by a heightened standard to serve as
president: I think what I am trying to say is that "natural born citizen"
may be a different concept, in constitutional parlance, than general
citizen.  In my humble opinion, it depends on the Framers' understanding
and receptivity to the naturalization process.  Some reporting suggests
that the 2nd or 3rd Congress may have amended the Naturalization Act of
1790 to support this conclusion.

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Robin Chand <robinkchand at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Professor Mozaffar -
>
> I think your email is a great segue to discuss Senator Cruz's eligibility
> to serve as president.
>
> Based on my reading, the Constitution may prescribe a heightened
> citizenship standard to serve as president versus ordinary, runofthemill
> citizenship.  In that regard, the document's requirement that a person
> serving have been a resident for 14 years, when considered against Senator
> Cruz's relatively recent renouncement of his Canadian citizenship, may
> weigh against his eligibility to serve.
>
> This issue, in my opinion, is in addition to the other problematic aspects
> of his claim that he is eligible - he is born to only one american parent,
> neither of his parents were serving in the military or on religious
> missions. and, most glaring of all, he was not born in the United States.
> I think Senator Cruz may have a serious problem on his hands.  Either way,
> the Supreme Court really oughta weigh in and define this issue once and for
> all.
>
> I would be very curious as to what the folks on this list serve though
> about this issue.
>
> Best wishes and happy new year -
>
> Robin
>
> On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 12:51 PM, Mozaffar, Shaheen <SMOZAFFAR at bridgew.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> I would greatly appreciate help from the constitutional experts on this
>> list on the following criteria raised by students about the definition of a
>> "natural born" citizen" and hence eligibility for becoming US President:
>>
>> 1.  A person born in any of one of the 50 states, regardless of the
>> parents' citizenship (straightforward)
>>
>> 2.  A person born anywhere in the world and at least one or both parents
>> are a US citizen, either natural-born or naturalized (Examples: Senator
>> McCain, Senator Cruz and Mr. Romney).
>>
>> 3.  A person born in any one of the 50 states, regardless of the parents'
>> citizenship when the state was a territory, and was grandfathered (e.g.
>> Senator Goldwater)
>>
>> 4.  A person born in Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, and Northern
>> Mariana Islands regardless of parents' citizenship
>>
>>
>>
>> 4.  A person born on an overseas American military base, regardless of
>> parents' citizenships.  This would apply, for example, to children of local
>> employees
>> who are contracted to work for the military or the US embassy and could
>> be eligible for medical treatment, including, childbirth, in US medical
>> facilities.  An intriguing hypothetical:  What about a newborn child of a
>> female terrorist-suspect incarcerated in Guantanamo?  Is the newborn a US
>> citizen
>>
>>
>>
>> 5.  A person born on a US-based airline travelling in international
>> airspace or a US-based ship travelling in international water, regardless
>> of parents' citizenship
>>
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> ****************************************
>> Shaheen Mozaffar, Ph.D.
>> Professor
>> Department of Political Science
>> 180 Summer Street
>> Bridgewater State University
>> Bridgewater, MA 02325
>> USA
>>
>> +1-508-531-2291 (me)
>> +1-508-531-1387 (dept)
>> +1-508-531-6186 (fax)
>>
>> smozaffar at bridgew.edu<mailto:smozaffar at bridgew.edu><mailto:
>> smozaffar at bridgew.edu>
>> www.bridgew.edu<http://www.bridgew.edu/><http://www.bridgew.edu/>
>> ****************************************
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
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>>
>
>
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