(March 7, 2012 at 8:59 am)Tiberius Wrote: There are various ways of obfuscating the term "natural born", since the founding fathers weren't very specific about what it actually meant. I've seen birthers claim that it means the person has to be born in the USA, to US citizens, or (if the person is born outside of the US), to US citizens over the age of 21. They particularly like that last one because Obama's mother was only 19 when she gave birth to him.
Its really not that hard Tiberius. You have to look up more sources than just the constitution. Of course its still a little gray, but its quite simple.
If you are born on American soil, regardless of the legal status of your parents, you are a natural born citizen according to the original intent of the constitution.
If you are born on a military base with one parent being a citizen, you are natural born citizen. Of course, courts have discussed it several times and have come to the same conclusion. McCain is a natural born citizen and I personally support it if we MUST have such a system.
They have steps to become a naturalized citizen, like Arnold did.
It starts to get a bit fuzzy beyond that.
I do believe most if not all of the courts consider being born to at least one citizen anywhere in the world makes the baby a natural born citizen. But, like I said before, its a bit fuzzy. So because of that most people in that situation do their damnedest to travel to American soil to ensure there is no question about it. Pregnant citizens about to explode on a plane to New York just to give birth comes to mind.
When it comes to Obama vs. McCain, Obamas citzenship is specifically mentioned in the constitution. there is no question. McCains type of citizenship, on the other hand, has been the subject of varying court hearings. I personally think if I were forced by the army to travel abroad and became pregnant, I would EXPECT my country to treat my offspring as natural born citizens no questions asked...but hey, this is politics we are talking here.
