Natural-born-citizen clause (United States)

This article is about a qualification for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States. For more general articles about this citizenship please see: Citizenship or Naturalization.

The United States Constitution requires that Presidents (and Vice Presidents) of the United States be natural-born citizens of the United States. While it is undisputed that people born in the US are qualified to hold the office of President, and that naturalized US citizens are disqualified from holding that office, it is disputed whether people born to US-citizen parents outside the United states are natural-born citizens or not.

The constitutional provisions

The special term "Natural-Born Citizen" is used in particular as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States. Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Additionally, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution states that: "[N]o person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides an additional source of constitutional Peace OUT to the Jurisdiction thereof, are Citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. . .}}

However, the full text of the fourteenth amendment does not mention the phrase "natural-born citizen," nor does it address Presidential qualifications. The phrase "natural born Citizen" is not defined anywhere in the Constitution.

Section 8 of Article I confers on Congress the power "to establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization..." This power has been construed to include defining the characteristics of a "natural born citizen", as well as the conditions of "naturalization".

The 1790 Congress, many of whose members had been members of the Constitutional Convention, provided in the Naturalization Act of 1790 that "And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens." In addition George Washington was president of the Constitutional Convention and President of the United States when this bill became law. If Washington disagreed with this definition, he could have vetoed this bill.

It is thought the origin of the natural-born citizen clause can be traced to a letter of July 25, 1787 from John Jay (who was born in New York City) to George Washington (who was born in Virginia), presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention. John Jay wrote: "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." There was no debate, and this qualification for the office of the Presidency was introduced by the drafting Committee of Eleven, and then adopted without discussion by the Constitutional Convention.

The 2003 Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, a proposed amendment to the US Constitution, would, if adopted, have removed the prohibition against naturalized citizens holding the office of the President.

Legislation and legal arguments

The requirements for citizenship and the very definition thereof have changed since the Constitution was ratified in 1788. Congress first recognized the citizenship of children born to U.S. parents overseas on March 26, 1790, under the first naturalization law: "And 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." (See ref. for the Act of 1795)

The Fourteenth Amendment mentions two types of citizenship: citizenship by birth and citizenship by law (naturalized citizens): "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

All persons born in the United States, except those not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. government (such as children of foreign diplomats) are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment. Persons born in the United States, and persons born on foreign soil to two U.S. parents, are born American citizens and are classified as citizens at birth under 8 USC 1401. There is some debate over whether persons who were born US citizens and are classified as citizens at birth under U.S. law should also be considered citizens "by birth," whether they should all be considered to be "naturalized," or whether they should be considered "statutory citizens." There is also some debate over whether there is a meaningful legal distinction between citizens "at birth", citizens "by birth" and "statutory citizens" since U.S. law makes no such distinction, nor does the Fourteenth Amendment use the term "at birth." Current U.S. statutes define certain individuals born overseas as "citizens at birth." One side of the argument interprets the Constitution as meaning that a person either is born in the United States or is a naturalized citizen. According to this view, in order to be a "natural born citizen," a person must be born in the United States, or possibly an incorporated territory; otherwise, they are a citizen "by law" and are therefore a "statutory citizen," (not necessarily, however, a naturalized citizen, which implies a pre-existing foreign citizenship). Current State Department policy reads: "Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth." However, the State Department is of the opinion that this does not affect those who are born abroad to U.S. citizens and who otherwise meet the qualifications for statutory citizenship.

Case law

Supreme Court cases relating to citizenship, generally

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has never specifically determined the meaning of "natural born Citizen," they have occasionally considered the matter in passing.

• Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857): In regard to the "natural born citizen" clause, the dissent states that it is acquired by place of birth (jus soli), not through blood or lineage (jus sanguinis): "The first section of the second article of the Constitution uses the language, 'a natural-born citizen.' It thus assumes that citizenship may be acquired by birth. Undoubtedly, this language of the Constitution was used in reference to that principle of public law, well understood in this country at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, which referred citizenship to the place of birth." (Much of the majority opinion in this case was overturned by the 14th Amendment in 1868.)
• Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U.S. 163 (1964): The Court voided a statute that provided that a naturalized citizen should lose his United States citizenship if, following naturalization, he resided continuously for three years in his former homeland. "We start from the premise that the rights of citizenship of the native-born and of the naturalized person are of the same dignity and are coextensive. The only difference drawn by the Constitution is that only the 'natural born' citizen is eligible to be President."

Cases in other courts relating specifically to the "natural born citizen" clause

Three United States District Courts have ruled that private citizens do not have standing to challenge the eligibility of candidates to appear on a presidential election ballot: Robinson v. Bowen, 567 F. Supp. 2d 1144 (N.D. Cal. 2008); Hollander v. McCain, 2008WL2853250 (D.N.H. 2008); Berg v. Obama, 08-04083 (E.D. Pa. 2008). In dicta in each of these cases, it was also opined that if the plaintiffs did have standing, the likelihood of success on the merits (which is part of the legal test for the issuance of a preliminary injunction) would be low. This law suit has been sent to the supreme court after dismissal, next ruling December 2008. The opinion in one of the cases also cited to a statutory method by which the eligibility of the President-elect to take office may be challenged in Congress.

Presidential candidates born outside the US

It is disputed whether the foreign-born children of US citizens are natural born citizens.While every President and Vice President to date (as of 2008) has either been a citizen at the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, or else born in the United States, there have been some presidential candidates who were born outside the United States.

George Romney, who ran for the Republican party nomination in 1968, was born in Mexico to U.S. parents. Romney’s grandfather emigrated to Mexico in 1886 with his three wives and children after Utah outlawed polygamy. Romney's parents retained their U.S. citizenship and returned to the United States in 1912. Romney was 32 years old when he arrived in Michigan.

Lowell Weicker, the former Connecticut Senator, Representative, and Governor, entered the race for the Republican party nomination of 1980 but dropped out before voting in the primaries began. He was born in Paris, France and acquired his citizenship at birth through his parents. His father was an executive for E. R. Squibb & Sons and his mother was the Indian-born daughter of a British general.

John McCain, who ran for the Republican party nomination in 2000 and was the Republican nominee in 2008, was born outside of the Panama Canal Zone in Colon, Panama, to U.S. parents. In April 2008 the US Senate approved a resolution affirming McCain's status as a natural born citizen. And in September of that year a Federal District judge said obiter that it was "highly probable" that McCain was a natural-born citizen of the United States owing to the citizenship legislation existing at the time.

Prominent citizens currently ineligible to hold the Presidency

The following U.S. citizens are ineligible to become President as they are all naturalized citizens:

• Fmr. Sec. Madeleine Albright was a United States Ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton and is currently a Professor at Georgetown University. She was born in Prague, in the then Czechoslovakia.
• Fmr. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz was a United States Senator from Minnesota and is currently Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He was born in Berlin.
• Sec. Elaine Chao is the current U.S. Secretary of Labor and a former Director of the Peace Corps. She was was born in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Gov. Jennifer Granholm is currently the second-term Democratic governor of Michigan. She was born in Canada.
• Sec. Carlos Gutierrez is the current U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He was born in Havana, Cuba.
• Sen. Mel Martinez is currently the Junior Senator from Florida. He was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba.
• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a second term governor of California. He was born in Austria.

See also

• Citizenship
• Nationality
• Native-born citizen