Letters to the Editor
Natural Born Citizens? No!
I read Steve Byas’ response, in the February 22, 2016 edition, to my Letter to the Editor in the January 25, 2016 edition regarding Rafael Eduardo (Ted) Cruz and Marco Rubio being ineligible for the presidency since neither are natural born citizens, as required in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution. Byas’ reply expresses several common misconceptions many have concerning the issue of natural born citizenship.
One misconception is that citizen and natural born citizen are one and the same, per Byas’ quote of Judge Napolitano. The quote is accurate. However, the Founding Fathers did not consider a natural born citizen and citizen as one and the same. This is evident by the two distinct classifications they wrote in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5: “No person except a natural born citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” There would have been no need for the Founding Fathers to delineate between natural born citizen and citizen had they intended for the two classifications to have the same definition.
The claim that the Naturalization Act of 1790 defines a natural born citizen ignores some fundamental points. Congress has only the power to make a foreigner a citizen through the naturalization process per Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 (uniform rule of naturalization). Congress does not have the enumerated power to make a person a natural born citizen.
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