Addressing the provenence of the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Apr 09, 2012 16:14

(*Insert standard I AM NOT A LAWYER disclaimer here ( Read more... )

obama, constituion, election, politics

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kethryvis April 10 2012, 03:16:50 UTC
The Wikipedia article on the 14th amendment cites US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898, approx. 25 years after the one you cited here) which might be helfpful:

(from en.wp, summary in Citizenship Clause)"In Wong Kim Ark the Supreme Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a man born within the United States to foreigners (in that case, Chinese citizens) who have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States and are carrying on business in the United States and who were not employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power, was a citizen of the United States."

(full article: here, which states that no legislature has taken up the issue, nor has the Court since)

The US has odd citizenship parameters, which i believe goes back to its founding as a country of immigrants. This is a colonized land, which makes citizenship requirements different from other countries with different histories.

That being said, all of this focus on the president's citizenship status is incredibly discomforting to me, and proves that we have a very long way to go as a country.

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