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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