Candidate Qualification: Responses from Colorado, South Carolina
Justin Riggs at yourfellowcitizen.com follows up on his official requests to various Secretaries of State offices questioning exactly who is responsible for certifying eligibility.
First, he found two web-based resources for Secretary of State inquiries:
- SaveOurRights Wiki: Vetting Candidates
- State Links for Election Law
The first follow up had to do with his conversations with the Colorado Democratic Party Chairwoman. He’s still trying to get an answer. The second is a long-emailed response from South Carolina’s Democratic Chairwoman, Carol Fowler. She is to be FAXing Justin a document whereby she certified that Barack Obama declared himself to be eligible for the presidency.
This all appears to be a rather sanguine piece of circular logic: “Yes, I declare that I am eligible to be President.” Yet, if the Constitution has stipulations for the presidency (which it does; Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5), how in the world is this actually enforced?Â
If a law is created but has no enforcement mechanism, there might as well be no law to begin with.
Again, Justin is doing some excellent work at the State level; I, too, believe that any reform of the electoral system must start here.
-Phil
The Honorable Judge Scalia is a graduate of the University of Chicago? This video reveals Hon. Judge Scalia views of the Constitution and law.
2008 National Lawyers Convention-Hon.Judge Antonin Scalia, US Supreme Court 11-22-2008:
http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/pubid.1193/pub_detail.asp#video
Senate proves McCain eligible and Obama ineligible??:
http://mcpalinmavericks.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/senate-proves-obama-ineligible/
http://www.hillarysvillage.net/showthread.php?t=4400
Amending the US Constitution’s “Natural Born Citizen” clause for Obama and Arnold???:
http://www.theurbangrind.net/?p=3438
http://lawreview.kentlaw.edu/articles/81-1/Herlihy.pdf
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
Tom DahSheaks,
Thanks for reading and commenting!
-Phil
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
The Senate Resolution has two flaws, in my opinion.
First, it is non-binding and constitutes only a “sense of the Senate” which even by its own terms violates the separation of powers which give to the Judicial branch the right to interpret the law and particularly the U.S. Constitution.
Second, the Senate Resolution alludes to the Naturalization Act of 1790 which adopted the term “natural born citizen” in governing citizenship of a child born overseas to two U.S. citizens but it FAILS to mention that the Naturalization Act of 1795 repealed that language and substituted only “citizen”.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=227
Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat. 103):
“the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens”
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=538
Naturalization Act of January 29, 1795 (1 Stat. 414):
“the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as Citizens”
Here is a link to more information, from sponsor Sen. Leahy’s website, which relates to S. 511
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200804/041008c.html
I would note that the Constitutional delegation of authority to the Legislative branch addresses that latter body’s right to write laws relating to citizenship, as follows:
Section 8 – Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; etc.
The uniform Rule of Naturalization might empower decisions about citizenship, allowing Congress to establish citizenship through Statute, but might restrict any attempt to legislate “natural born citizen” status. There must be some kind of legislative history which tracked the 1795 law and addresses why the words “natural born” were stripped out. Could it possibly be that the Congress (many of them the original Framers) felt that the delegation of a power to establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization had been exceeded by the 1790 version when it used “natural born” terminology?
Someone who believed McCain to be disqualified posted this information in a Blog, which quotes the two older laws and then the current U.S. Code governing births outside the U.S. and citizenship rights:
http://12angrymen.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/natural-born-citizens-a-congressional-bed-time-story/
Leo agrees with the conclusion but disagrees with attempts to rely on common law; the Constitution was intended to create “national law” which would set U.S.A. apart from England when it came to the supreme law of the country.
This last link is to a template offered up by a Harvard Law graduate now teaching at Ohio State University’s law school for gaining “standing” to litigate these cases.
http://www.michiganlawreview.org/firstimpressions/vol107/tokaji.htm
“Barack Obama declared himself to be eligible for the presidency”
So in other words, no one checked him out and he declared himself to be eligible to run for President of The United States of America without any type of background check or without actually going through the vetting process?
What the heck, and now the Democratic party are just going to try and sweep this under the rug for what? Too try and save face? What a shame…….
The least Obama can to do is return the favor…..
S. Res. 511: A resolution recognizing that John Sidney McCain, III, is a natural born citizen
“”States that John Sidney McCain, III, is a “natural born Citizen” under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States.”"
-Sponser
Sen. Claire McCaskill [D-MO]
-Cosponsors [as of 2008-11-07]
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Sen. Jim Webb [D-VA]
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R-OK]
Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY]
Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL]
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=sr110-511
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-sr511/show
Thomas Library of Congress
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:S.RES.511:
**Added a couple links just in case.
[...] Candidate Qualification: Responses from Colorado, South Carolina SaveOurRights Wiki: Vetting Candidates; State Links for Election Law. The first follow up had to do with his conversations with the Colorado Democratic Party Chairwoman. He’s still trying to get an answer. The second is a long-emailed … [...]