Two of Top Three 2016 Republican Presidential Contenders in Townhall Straw Poll Ineligible to Serve HAS THENATURAL BORN CITIZEN CLAUSE BEEN RENDERED OBSOLETE? by Sharon Rondeau (Jan. 3, 2014) — In a straw poll conducted by Townhall, two of the leading three candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, are ineligible to serve if the historical understanding of the constitutional term “natural born Citizen” is upheld. Can the People impress upon the political parties that only a natural born Citizen can be president and commander-in-chief of the U.S. military? As of Saturday at 4:17 p.m. EST, Cruz is leading with 12% of the total votes followed by Write-In candidates, with Rubio holding third place. Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires the president and commander-in-chief to be a “natural born Citizen,” which historical treatises, letters and essays indicate was meant to preclude anyone with foreign influence from having command of the U.S. military. In a July 25, 1787 letter to Gen. George Washington as the Constitution was being debated, John Jay, who later became the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote: Dear Sir, Permit me to hint whether it would not 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 command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen. I remain, dear sir, Your faithful friend and servant, John Jay. Washington and the other founders agreed, reportedly without debate (p. 353), that the term natural born Citizen would be a requirement for the presidency as opposed to simply a Citizen, which was stated as a requirement for members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Some believe that the delineation between Citizen and natural born Citizen is as yet unclear. An essay written in or after 1997 by Christina S. Lohman published in the Gonzaga Law Review contends in its conclusion that the Framers most likely considered children born in foreign countries to U.S.-citizen parents to be natural born Citizens,(plural!) particularly if the parents were in the service of the U.S. government in some way. 9birtherreport/2015/01/straw-poll-two-top-2016-gop.html
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 04:39:23 +0000
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