Calvinball as political sport:

[jrittenhouse]

Comments

[agladstone]

Did you naturalize Merideth? There was a law that went into effect in 2000 that said that foreign born children adopted by American citizens received all the rights and obligations as natural born children. Citizenship was included in the rights and it over turned a previous law that specifically left out citizenship.

Of course, Congress passed the law with no funding or specifications on how you would go about getting proof of citizenship. They left that to INS.

DS came home in 1999 and his paperwork for naturalization was coming up in Dec. of 99. We were told to wait the month out and he would be automatically a citizen. Not trusting a government bueracracy, I did not wait and pushed through the naturalization paperwork.

[jrittenhouse]

That's how she became a citizen; she didn't have to go through 99% of the naturalization rigamarole, and we got a certificate of citizenship from the state of Illinois for her passport, etc.

[agladstone]

The children that received citizenship may be the same as natural born citizens and therefore would be eligible to become president. The issue may have to be settled by the courts.

[astro_not1]

Assuming some person who has been naturalized in this fashion were to try, it would have to go to the courts, but most, if not all, of the courts would simply shut it down, since the Constitution states that the President and Vice-President must be natural-born citizens, not naturalized. That's the supposed basis for the Birther nuts claims - that Obama wasn't actually born in Hawaii, but was born in Africa or Singapore. I even heard one nit-wit claiming that even though his mother was a citizen (and he could claim citizenship based on that), she couldn't confer citizenship on him because she was allegedly a minor when he was born.

[jrittenhouse]

I've heard that 'too young' bit as well, and it's garbage. I do, however, pretty much agree with your assessment on the 'natural born' issue; the ONLY thing I can think of that Mere *can't* be because she's a naturalized citizen (regardless of the process) is President or VP.

[agladstone]

The law says that foreign born children that are adopted by American citizens have the same rights and obligations as if they were born to the parents. That is why these children get citizenship automatically and do not need to go through the normal INS naturalization procedures. A valid interuptation of this law, can be that these children are natural-born citizens.

As for President Obama, he was born in Hawaii. But even if he was not, his mother was a citizen, and therefore, he would be a natural-born citizen no matter where he was born. Nut cases are just that nut cases.