Dear Mr. Charles:

 

Thank you for contacting me about the constitutional requirements to be president. I agree with you that it is not a trivial question, and appreciate hearing from you on this issue.

 

Barrack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to parents Ann Dunham, and Barrack Obama Sr. Though President-elect Obama has resided abroad, he has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor ever swore an oath of allegiance to any other country. His birth records have been verified by relevant officials and this issue has been examined by several courts.

 

This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court, after numerous challenges in lower courts, upheld the decision that without question, Barrack Obama is qualified to run for, and serve as, President of the United States (Donofrio v. Wells). As a matter of constitutional law, the case is now closed.

 

Eight months ago, when similar challenges were raised about Senator John McCain, I led efforts to evaluate and consider a bipartisan resolution to express the sense that Sen. McCain was a "natural born Citizen," as the term is used in the Constitution of the United States. The same individual from New Jersey who brought his emergency appeal against Obama to the Supreme Court, was also outspoken against McCain's candidacy.

Our Constitution contains three requirements for a person to be eligible to be President - the person must have reached the age of 35; must have resided in America for 14 years; and must be a ''natural born Citizen'' of the United States. Our research into the definition of natural born citizens did not reveal any reason to limit the careers of children born to military families simply because they were stationed overseas. Similarly, it would not make sense to punish children born to foreign service families or ambassadors stationed overseas or children born overseas to American missionaries. They are all American citizens at the time of their birth.

 

Numerous legal scholars have looked into the purpose and intent of the "natural born Citizen" requirement. As far as I am aware, no one has discovered any reason to think that the Framers would have wanted to limit the rights of children born to Americans abroad or that such a limited view would serve any noble purpose enshrined in our founding document.

 

It is interesting to note that another previous presidential candidate, George Romney, was born outside of the United States. He was widely understood to be eligible to be President. Senator Barry Goldwater was born in a U.S territory that later became the State of Arizona. Certainly those who voted for these two Republican candidates believed that they were eligible to assume the office of the President.

Thank you for contacting me. Please stay in touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PATRICK LEAHY
United States Senator

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