Tim Dejong – The Senate Defined Natural Born Citizen in 2008

The Senate defined “natural born Citizen” in

2008, and Obama didn’t qualify
DEMOCRAT SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY AND OTHERS “RESOLVED” THAT IT
TOOK TWO CITIZEN PARENTS TO BE A “NATURAL BORN CITIZEN”

Author: Tim DeJong, Post & Email

Date: May 17, 2010
http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/05/17/the-senate-defined-natural-born-citizen-in-
2008-and-obama-didnt-qualify/

(May 17, 2010) — The simple truth in evidence is Obama’s own declaration that he was born
of a British father and is therefore not a “natural born Citizen.”

The Constitution1 is a modest document. Much of its meaning is in what is usually called
common law. Some assume common law refers to Blackstone2 or English Common Law. The
framers and many justices, Joseph Story3 among them, have referred to Vattel as our
common law. Given that the first school of law established at a college in the Congress United
(between the Revolution and the ratification) was that created at William and Mary by
Thomas Jefferson, when James Madison was its president, and among its first students was
John Marshall, and the stated structure of the curriculum was Law of Nations based upon
Vattel4 and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations5. Can there be any doubt about the intent of the
framers when justices including subsequent Chief Justice John Marshall6 cited Vattel when
quoting “born on the soil of parents who are its citizens?” When the principal author of the
14th amendment, John Bingham7, cites Vattel “about which there has never been doubt,” the
meaning of “natural born Citizen” is confirmed for at least the twentieth time.

James Madison8 said:

I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the

Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the
legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can
be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful exercise of its
powers. If the meaning of the text be sought in the changeable meaning of the
words composing it, it is evident that the shapes and attributes of the
Government must partake of the changes to which the words and phrases of all
living languages are constantly subject. What a metamorphosis would be
produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its
modern sense. And that the language of our constitution is already undergoing
interpretations unknown to its founders, will I believe appear to all unbiased
Enquirers into the history of its origin and adoption.” Madison’s words define
“the time-honored canons of statutory interpretation.” The words of our framers
citing Vattel, and the subsequent use of the term coined by Vattel, “natural born
Citizen” – not “subject.”

Framer Dr. David Ramsay9 pointed out in 1791:

A citizen of the United States means a member of this new nations. The principle

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of government being radically changed by the revolution, the political character

of the people was also changed from subjects to citizens.

The difference is immense. Subject is derived from the Latin words, sub and
jacio, and means one who is under the power of another; but a citizen is an unit
of a mass of free people, who, collectively, possess sovereignty.

The Constitutional power to define “natural born Citizens” was not intended to be left to the
states. It was our common law, understood by every jurist of the time in the most quoted, the
most cited, and the most important legal document in the framing of our Republic. The Law
of Nations was the most cited legal reference by almost a factor of four between 1789 and 1821
(followed by Bynkeshoek and Pufendorf10).

The notion of “sovereign legal instruments” is a new twist.” We don’t need “sovereign legal
instruments” to tell us that the four chief justices and dozens of justices of the Supreme Court
who cite Vattel on “natural born Citizen,” and hundreds who cite Vattel on other legal matters
(try to count the Vattel citations in James Wilson’s11 Philadelphia Lectures) have established
our common law. There are well over 100 terms used in articles and amendments not defined
in the body of the document. That was intentional. Madison, above, determined to keep the
Constitution concise. A major role of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution’s
provisions.

Some of those submitting smoke are actually being paid by the White House, which in itself is
a frightening testament to how close to tyranny we are.

Of course one could turn to that great legal scholar, Sen. Patrick Leahy, who agreed with
former judge and HSA Secretary Michael Chertoff in 2008 when Chertoff said, “It is my
understanding that a natural born citizen has two parents who are citizens.” This was, of
course, part of the plot culminating in Senate Resolution 51112 to insure that John McCain
would be perceived as eligible to run against Obama, thereby silencing any questions about
Obama’s failure to satisfy the “citizen parents” attribute of natural born citizenship.

Clever law professors such as Larry Tribe13, for whom Obama was a research assistant, and
whom Elena Kagan14 pardoned after Tribe was exposed as a plagiarist, will try to confuse the
issue, but our framers said it simply and clearly, citing Vattel. A natural born citizen is born
on our soil of citizen parents. Obama is ineligible, and if we have to have another revolution to
return to the values which make our republic great, we will prevail.

Read the original sources. They are understandable. When Wong Kim Ark15 is raised, that is a
common Obot smokescreen. Horace Gray16 was appointed by the only other usurper to sit in
the White House, Chester Arthur17, and his decision only applied to citizens, not natural born
citizens. It is a confusingly-written document, but eventually cites Minor v. Happersett18 in
which Vattel is cited. Since Wong Kim was never presumed to be a natural born citizen – he
was born in San Francisco but of non-citizen parents – natural born citizenship was not at
issue, and not determined. Some think Gray was creating smoke to protect his appointee.

Someone found an article written in a New York newspaper in 1789 describing a visit to
George Washington’s New York office. Washington hadn’t yet entered the office when the
reporters were admitted. Being reporters they noted that Washington, on his his first day as

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president had one book open on his desk, Vattel’s Law of Nations. Law of Nations is a
readable compendium of what was described as natural law drawing from and citing
philosophers from Aristotle to Vattel’s contemporaries. Read it online or from Amazon or the
library. Several of our framers, including Alexander Hamilton19, describe it as our common
law.

Endnotes:
1 http://www.scribd.com/doc/23978769/Constitution-for-the-United-States

2 http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Blackstone

3 http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-story

4 http://www.constitution.org/vattel/vattel.htm

5 http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall

7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bingham

8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison

9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ramsay_%28congressman%29 and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/28533750/David-Ramsay-History-of-the-American-
Revolution-V1 and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/28533979/David-Ramsay-History-of-the-American-
Revolution-V2

10 http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/pufendorf.htm

11 http://www.constitution.org/jwilson/jwilson.htm

12 http://www.scribd.com/doc/26603580/Senate-Resolution-511-McCain-is-NBC

13 http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=74

14 http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-
commentary/2010/05/our_view_give_solicitor_genera.html

15 http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/14315/

16 http://www.bahistory.org/HoraceGray.html

17 http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/arthur

18 http://www.scribd.com/doc/17227001/Minor-v-Happersett-88-US-21-Wall-162-1874

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19 http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/HAMILT.HTM

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