Definition of Natural Born Citizen

Two recent articles on citizenship suggest the chief issue is allegiance, not place of birth. Thus, dual citizenship calls into question Mr. Obama's eligibility to be president.

First, Judah Benjamin of Texas Darlin has an interesting post. The article begins:

"Barack Obama has been a citizen of multiple nations. And even if his citizenship outside the US was renounced, Article II of the U.S. Constitution prohibits him from being President, for the same reason that naturalized citizens are prohibited: divided loyalties."

and

"There is no way a person who has Dual Citizenship, or who has had Dual Citizenship, should be eligible under Article II."

Mr. Benjamin's reasoning is that the United States Naturalization Act of 1790, which was repealed in 1795, states that:

"The children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens”.

Around the same time, John Jay wrote to George Washington:

"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.”

Noting that the chief concern is with divided loyalty concerning defense, Benjamin adds:

"Note that what particularly concerned Jay was not a political issue but a military issue arising because the President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. He was bothered by issues of National Security."

Benjamin then goes on to quote Supreme Court Justice Noah Haynes in United States v. Rhodes:

In United States v. Rhodes, Supreme Court Justice Noah Haynes Swayne (December 7, 1804 – June 8, 1884) addressed the issue as follows:

“All persons born in the Allegiance of the King are Natural- Born subjects, and all persons born in the Allegiance of the United States are Natural-Born Citizens. Birth and Allegiance go together. Such is the Rule of the Common Law, and it is the Common Law of this country…since as before the Revolution.”

Benjamin concludes:

"To be a Natural Born Citizen one has to be born in a State, or Condition of, Allegiance to the USA. A person with Dual Nationality due to having parents of differing Nationality, who both acknowledged the Birth, is not so born. Their Allegiance is, by definition, divided. Subsequent acquisition of Nationality produces the same problem."

Benjamin goes on to quote Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England:

"And this maxim of the law proceeded upon a general principle, that every man owes natural allegiance where he is born, and cannot owe two such allegiances, or serve two masters, at once.... To encourage also foreign commerce, it was enacted by statute 25 Edw. III. st. 2. that all children born abroad, provided both their parents were at the time of the birth in allegiance to the king, and the mother had passed the seas by her husband’s consent, might inherit as if born in England."

Benjamin also quote the US State Department:

"dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country"

He argues that:

"The whole point of Article II is that the President must have absolute and total Allegiance to the United States of America and no Foreign Ruler or Government, Church, or Political Entity...The purpose behind the exclusion of Naturalized Citizens is that the President must never even have had such an Allegiance in the past"

Moreover, under the law that governs naturalization, SEC. 337. [8 U.S.C. 1448], to become a citizen you are required:

"(1) to support the Constitution of the United States; (2) to renounce and abjure absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen..."

and

"Obama’s behavior in Kenya by campaigning actively for Odinga has to call his Allegiance into question. There is also reason to think that Governor Bill Richardson has the same problem, more or less. This is unprecedented and it should not be allowed to go unchallenged."

Miri sent me a related article by Edward Erler of Cal State San Bernardino that appeared Imprimis Magazine, published by Hillsdale College. Professor Erler points out that the Fourteenth Amendment states:

“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.”

The phrase "'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' meant 'not owing allegiance to anybody else and being subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.'"

Professor Erler argues that the concept of "birthright citizenship" has feudal origins and was explicitly repudiated. An example is the use of the term "jurisdiction" in the Fourteenth Amendment. He adds that:

"the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment specified that those who are naturalized must owe exclusive allegiance to the U.S. to be included within its jurisdiction. And the citizenship oath taken today still requires a pledge of such allegiance. But in practice dual citizenship—and dual allegiance—is allowed. This is a sign of the decline of American citizenship and of America as a nation-state."

Obama's Supporters Have a Moral Problem

After being down this evening Texas Darlin's blog is back up. TD analyzes the legal implications of Obama's multiple citizenship. TD argues:

"Prior to 2007 (and possibly earlier), Indonesian law did not permit dual citizenship. Thus, if Obama actively kept his Indonesian citizenship, his US citizenship could be challenged." With respect to Kenya he notes that "Under the Constitution of Kenya, he would have automatically forfeited his citizenship at the age of 21 unless he affirmatively “claimed” it. If he took some action to keep his citizenship, that’s a big problem because 1) Kenya prohibits dual citizenship and 2) the US does not recognize dual citizenship with Kenya."

TD adds: "Again, I don’t think that Obama has Kenyan citizenship. I think that the Rocky Mountain report and Andy Martin’s work are poorly sourced on this point."

TD raises a few points that amount to ethical as well as Constitutional problems for Mr. Obama:

1. The attempt to cloak his Indonesian citizenship
2. Constitutional problems because the conflict of interest may mean that he is not a "natural born citizen".

TD writes:

"The “natural-born” clause of Article II is commonly understood to relate to the place of birth, but more accurately relates to loyalty to country as Commander in Chief. That was the original intent of the founding fathers. In McCain’s case, there is no question because of his circumstances (born on military base to 2 US citizens, later joined the military, never had anything to do with Panama, etc.). In Obama’s case, it’s not nearly so clear, especially given his travels, relatives, and associations in some of these other countries."

He concludes:

"In my mind, however, the biggest problem is that Sen. Obama has intentionally concealed his background, Indonesian identity, citizenship, and the fact that he was at one time Muslim."

If these allegations are true, there are serious ethical and moral concerns about Mr. Obama. I am not a constitutional expert and would want additional support for TD's interpretation of the concept of natural born citizen. As a professor of business and a former corporate manager, there are serious and obvious motivational, ethical and professional concerns about conflicts of interest, especially those that are as fundamental as dual or multiple citizenship. There have been cases of terrorists who claimed to be loyal to the United States for many years before committing murder.

Obama supporters' recent responses to allegations of Mr. Obama's longstanding deception about his birth certificate; his failure to disclose and reveal his adopted name which allegedly is on the only birth certificate available to him; and fundamental questions about his citizenship and loyalty suggest a moral breakdown. Whether these allegations are true will remain to be seen.

But instead of questioning and asking Mr. Obama to do the right thing, to reveal information, to behave in an ethical and open fashion, the response of a number of Obama supporters, all with whom I have corresponded, has been to defend his lying, to lie themselves, to concoct specious arguments, to quibble, to deflect and to feign.

Obama Supporters: You have a problem. Your candidate has been lying, covering up and may have serious conflicts of interest that could prevent him from doing the fundamental Presidential job of protecting these United States. You need to demand that he explain the deception, explain the dual citizenship and reveal any and all documentation. Concocting specious arguments, lying and hoping that things will turn out all right is not the right approach.

Have Obama Supporters Attacked TexasDarlin?

I received the press release about the Soetoro birth certificate just a while ago as I was out mowing the lawn. I tried to access the TexasDarlin blog, which is on Wordpress, about the Soetoro birth certificate referenced in the e-mail and by No Quarter. I get a portal message that says that access is by password only. That wasn't true of TexasDarlin as of yesterday. So either TexasDarlin closed his blog on the same day as this hot story was released, or once again we see something fishy surrounding an anti-Obama blog.

No Quarter & Texas Darlin Report Birth Certificate w Last Name Soetoro, Not Obama--Obama May Have Been Concealing His Adopted Name

Larry Johnson (h/t Bob Robbins) of No Quarter USA whom I had heard on Friday had obtained a copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate visited Hawaii this past weekend. He now blogs that Mr. Obama may have Indonesian citizenship and that he has links to Pakistan as well, as well as Kenyan citizenship. Johnson goes on to add:

"Did I also mention how small Hawaii is? Republican operatives, with help from their own island backers, have unearthed critical information on Obama and are just biding their time until after the convention to drop it on him. Such as? Having a birth certificate that lists you as Barry Soetoro.

"Barack aka Barry Soetoro might have escaped scrutiny back in 1960 when there was no internet. Controlling information back then was so much easier. Not today. It is there for the taking and the Democrats foolishly chose to trust this clown just as they trusted John Edwards."

Whether these are accurate claims will be confirmed in time. There are increasingly serious accusations about Mr. Obama's integrity and his past. Allegations about multiple citizenships and his failure to reveal his birth certificate.

TexasDarlin adds:

"For those who have not followed this story, Soetoro is the name on Obama’s Birth Certificate (BC) because a new BC was issued when he was adopted by Lolo Soetoro, his step-father. His original BC, which we assume was issued for Barack Hussein Obama at birth, would have been sealed at that time.

"We assert that Barry Soetoro acquired Indonesian citizenship in approximately 1965-1966, and may still hold it. Barack Obama possibly changed his legal name back to Barack Hussein Obama as an older child, teenager, or adult, possibly never did — but even if he did, this procedure would not result in a change to the BC.

"The Birth Certificate published by Obama on his campaign website (still there, by the way) and distributed to the media was forged because the real BC on file is in the name Soetoro, an identity he apparently wanted to hide from the American people.

"I am getting reports from different sources that Obama traveled to Pakistan in ‘81 with an Indonesian passport."

TexasDarlin comments that the concealment and dual citizenship may pose legal as well as political problems: "Article II of the constitution requires the POTUS and Commander-in-Chief to have only ONE loyalty to country, and that must be to the US."

This episode reveals much about the mainstream media (MSM), as alot of people have been commenting. This epic scandal has not been treated on any of the MSM television channels or the major market newspapers. It is as though the institutiton of the press has decided to make itself irrelevant and bloggers and other informal sources are filling the gaps.

This is one more piece of evidence of a more general institutional breakdown in the United States. The Fed subsidizes investment banks for tens of billions of dollars without even masking the subsidies with claims of public interest concerns. Special interests dominate Washington. The media is inept and partisan, unwilling to tell the truth or even make inquiries about a major candidate. Elections are managed in an incompetent way so that boards of elections and the Federal Elections Commission do not verify candidates' claimed identities.