The Definition of a Birther
By
Leo Patrick Haffey
© January 1, 2011
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Abraham Lincoln
The definition of a birther is: Birther--noun--a person who believes - against evidence - that Barack Obama was born outside of the United States.
By definition I am not a birther. I do not believe or disbelieve that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born outside of the United States. I readily admit that I do not know where BHO Jr. was born. However, both BHO Jr. and his closest family friends like Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie vociferously allege that BHO Jr. was born in Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham.
If we take BHO Jr. at his word then there is no doubt that he is not a Natural Born Citizen of the United States as required by the Presidential Qualifications Clause of Article II Section 1 Paragraph 5 of the United States Constitution. The Constitution requires that to be the President of the United States, a person must be born in the United States of two parents who are citizens of the United States. By BHO Junior’s own admission his father was a British/Kenyan subject (citizen) at the time of his birth. Thus BHO Jr. is disqualified for the Presidency.
There is a clear, concise definition of the term "Natural Born Citizen" in Vattel's Law of Nations which was the principal legal reference book used by the Founding Fathers in writing the Constitution.
"The natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens...it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country."
There have been innumerable United States Supreme Court Decisions that have referenced Vattel’s Law of Nations as a resource in interpreting the original intent of the Founding Fathers when writing the Constitution.
The following are a few of the cases that have reiterated Vattel’s definition of the meaning of the term, Natural Born Citizen.
In the Venus Case, 12 U.S. 8 Cranch 253 253 (1814), Justice Livingston, who wrote the unanimous decision, quoted the entire §212 paragraph from the French edition of Vattel’s Law of Nations:
"Vattel who…is more explicit and more satisfactory on it than any other whose work has fallen into my hands, says:
The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives (natural born citizens) or indigenes are those born in the country of parents who are citizens. Society not being able to subsist and to perpetuate itself but by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights.
The inhabitants, as distinguished from citizens, are strangers who are permitted to settle and stay in the country. Bound by their residence to the society, they are subject to the laws of the state while they reside there, and they are obliged to defend it…"
Justice Story ruled in Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 3 Pet. 242 242 (1830), ‘If she was not of age, then she might well be deemed under the circumstances of this case to hold the citizenship of her father, for children born in a country, continuing while under age in the family of the father, partake of his national character as a citizen of that country. Her citizenship, then, being prima facie established, and indeed this is admitted in the pleadings…"
In Minor v. Happersett , 88 U.S. 162 (1875), Chief Justice Morrison Waite delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, "The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners."
Justice Gray ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), "At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children, born in a country of parents who were its citizens, became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners."
A reading of the above referenced United States Supreme Court Cases coupled with a reading of Vattel’s clear and concise definition of a Natural Born Citizen in his monumental work, Law of Nations, leaves no doubt that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. is not constitutionally qualified to be the President of the United States of America.
Unfortunately for all Americans, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has yet to rule on the definition of a Natural Born Citizen as it pertains to the Presidency of the United States. It is not as some say that the Supreme Court has heretofore evaded or avoided the opportunity to achieve greatness and rule on this most profound constitutional issue of first impression. Rather it is that no Justices in the history of American jurisprudence have had this momentous fate thrust upon them. As always, I have an unvanquished trust that these "just" men and women will seize the fate before them and make an everlasting first and foremost impression on the future of the Greatest Nation in the History of Mankind.
References:
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/birther
© January 1, 2011 by Leo Patrick HaffeyLeo Patrick Haffey is a lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee who has worked in the music, motion picture and television industries as a producer. Mr. Haffey’s productions have been broadcast on most of the major television networks. Mr. Haffey has done extensive legal research on the Constitution, in particular the Constitutional qualifications for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Leo Patrick Haffey
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