CONSTITUTIONAL MINUTE #24
Article II, Section 1, clause 5 states, “No Person except a natural born citizen... shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
According to the original intent of our Constitution, neither Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, nor Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen.
At the times they were born, their fathers were not citizens. Location of birth is irrelevant. A “natural born” citizen inherits his citizenship from his parents, especially the father.
In this paper, (https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/the-constitution-vattel-and-natural-born-citizen-what-our-framers-knew/), you can find the links to Vattel and other original source documents illustrating the original intent of “natural born citizen” by our founders.
Just as a person inherits his eye and hair color from parents, so he inherits his citizenship status. He is “born” with the hair and eye color his parents gave him, and he is “born” with the citizenship status they gave him. No provision in the Constitution made him a Citizen – no Act of Congress made him a Citizen – just as no provision in the Constitution or Act of Congress determined his eye or hair color.
Our first generation of Presidents was all born as subjects of the British King. There were not US citizens until July 4, 1776 when we proclaimed our Independence. Art. II, Sec. 1, clause 5 contains a grandfather clause which permitted our first batch of Presidents to qualify. They were citizens at the time of the Adoption of our Constitution.
Our Country would be so much better off if people would stop spouting off about this subject until after they become well-informed. And they can’t become well-informed until they have studied using only original source documents!
So! Do we read our Constitution with original intent as we do here, or with textualism (the words mean what they mean today, not what they meant when our Constitution was drafted & ratified); or do we think it’s a living, breathing, evolving Constitution which means whatever the Judges, or whoever has the power, says it means?
Which are you?
Think hard about the ramifications of each position before you decide.