George Romney and eligibility.

Japhy

Banned
Its not a frivolous case. The difference between George Romney and McCain or Obama is that McCain was covered by specific laws for children born in the Canal Zone, and there is no basis for Obama having not been born in Kenya. On the other hand George Romney was open about being born in Mexico and the legal history of what the requirements for being a "Natural Born Citizen" have changed over time. As mentioned 1790 and 1795 law as well as countless other documents and opinions over time differ, and thus the Supreme Court has to step in to clarify things.

There's no reason to get pissy about this just because wingnuts today go after Obama for this, its apples and oranges.
 
Its not a frivolous case. The difference between George Romney and McCain or Obama is that McCain was covered by specific laws for children born in the Canal Zone, and there is no basis for Obama having not been born in Kenya. On the other hand George Romney was open about being born in Mexico and the legal history of what the requirements for being a "Natural Born Citizen" have changed over time. As mentioned 1790 and 1795 law as well as countless other documents and opinions over time differ, and thus the Supreme Court has to step in to clarify things.

Show me how George Romney wasn't covered by US statute and legal precedent in 1968, Japhy. Explain to me what legal uncertainty would allow an ordinary plaintiff to plead an anti-Romney case before federal district court, and then before the federal appeals court, and finally, most importantly, then before the Supreme Court of the United States of America (ignore my little hypothetical from above, as that's obviously a states' rights/voting right's thing, not an Orly Taitz thing.)

There's no reason to get pissy about this just because wingnuts today go after Obama for this, its apples and oranges.

I'm not "getting pissy". If you think mildly spirited debate on a moderated forum is "pissy" then you're a little too thinskinned, IMO.

I'm just requesting that extraordinary claims about the legal conventional wisdom RE just what the SCOTUS will and will not hear need some context.
 
TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER III > Part I > § 1401
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/1401.html

§ 1401. Nationals and citizens of United States at birth
The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth:
(a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;
(b) a person born in the United States to a member of an Indian, Eskimo, Aleutian, or other aboriginal tribe: Provided, That the granting of citizenship under this subsection shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of such person to tribal or other property;
(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person;
(d) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth of such person, and the other of whom is a national, but not a citizen of the United States;
(e) a person born in an outlying possession of the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth of such person;
(f) a person of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to his attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States;
(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22 by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a member of the household of a person
(A) honorably serving with the Armed Forces of the United States, or
(B) employed by the United States Government or an international organization as defined in section 288 of title 22, may be included in order to satisfy the physical-presence requirement of this paragraph. This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its present form on that date; and
(h) a person born before noon (Eastern Standard Time) May 24, 1934, outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States of an alien father and a mother who is a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, had resided in the United States.

Both George's parents, Gaskell and Anna, were born in Utah before moving to Mexico as teenagers. It was in that country that they married and gave birth to a son.

They were both born on US territorial soil after the passage of the 14th Amendment. They were never citizens of Mexico, they never renounced their American citizenship.

At the time of the nineteen sixty-eight presidential election Section C., of Part One, of Subchapter Three, of Chapter Twelve, of Title Eight of the United States Code declared George W. Romney to be an American citizen by birth.

He therefore qualified as natural born under the US constitutional requirement for the highest office in the land.
 
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