Citizenship: the Last
Word
J.R. Dunn
Considering the experience that one of its
co-authors has concerning electoral matters, today's
article by Ken Blackwell and Bob
Morrison on the eligibility of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, and Bobby
Jindal to run for president ought to end the matter. It won't, of course.
Debates over that topic have proven not only self-perpetuating but self-generating
-- every time you think they've died down for good, they flare up once again.
But the least we can ask about such debates is
that they adhere to established statute. One of the most curious aspects of
these citizenship disputations is how often (almost always, in point of fact)
they overlook what the actual law states. Odd assertions by forgotten
politicians, misspelled Latin footnotes in obscure political tracts, court
cases thrown out by judges a hour after they were called -- all these would be
welcome as weapons in the citizenship debate. What you don't hear, for various
reasons, is what the U.S. Code, the actual statutory law that governs such
matters in this country, has to say about it.
So as a public service, AT is publishing
Section 8 § 1401 of the United States Code, dealing with birth citizenship.
Read carefully, it will reveal several items that may surprise, and others that
will perhaps dismay. (One thing it will not reveal is one solitary line
about "natural-born citizenship." Sorry.) If any person meets a
single one of these qualifications, he or she is one of us. If they don't, they
aren't. That is the end of it, because that is the law.
One thing you are sure to discover is that all
the GOP politicians mentioned above (even Ted Cruz, that faux Canadian),
is an American, and fully qualified for a grab at the big brass ring. And that
is not a bad thing at all.
8 USC § 1401 - Nationals and citizens of United
States at birth
The following shall be nationals and citizens of
the United States at birth:
(a) a person born in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof;
(b) a person born in the United States to a
member of an Indian, Eskimo, Aleutian, or other aboriginal tribe: Provided,
That the granting of citizenship under this subsection shall not in any manner
impair or otherwise affect the right of such person to tribal or other
property;
(c) a person born outside of the United States
and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United
States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its
outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person;
(d) a person born outside of the United States
and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United
States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its
outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth of
such person, and the other of whom is a national, but not a citizen of the
United States;
(e) a person born in an outlying possession of
the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who
has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying
possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth
of such person;
(f) a person of unknown parentage found in the
United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to his
attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United
States;
(g) a person born outside the geographical
limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom
is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the
birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its
outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years,
at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided,
That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States,
or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an
international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22
by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is
physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a
member of the household of a person
(A) honorably serving with the Armed Forces of
the United States, or
(B) employed by the United States Government or
an international organization as defined in section 288 of title 22, may be
included in order to satisfy the physical-presence requirement of this
paragraph. This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after
December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its
present form on that date; and
(h) a person born before noon (Eastern Standard
Time) May 24, 1934, outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States of
an alien father and a mother who is a citizen of the United States who, prior
to the birth of such person, had resided in the United States.
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