The Faux Birth Certificate Controversy

By Roberta

Obama is an American citizen and has been from the first second of his birth.

Obama was born in Hawaii, a state in the United States, in 1981 to an American mother and a father who had dual Kenyan-British citizenship.

Any person born in the United States is automatically a citizen. The citizenship of children born in the United States is the first thing addressed in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. It would take a constitutional amendment to change that.

Obama could have been born to two illegal aliens and he would still be an American citizen under the 14th Amendment, Section 1. I will cite it here again:

"Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

tamerlane stated in one of his posts that Obama's eligibility to be President hinges on his actions between 18-21 as regards the possibility of dual citizenship. The fact of the matter is that the Kenyan Constitution prohibits dual citizenship in adulthood. If Obama was a dual citizen at birth he lost it at age 21.

As to the possibility of being an Indonesian citizen while living and going to school in Indonesia, American laws state that a minor cannot give up his American citizenship through the actions of his or her parents.

The COLB that Obama has produced meets all of the requirements of proof of citizenship of the State Department.

I have gone through all of the comments in tamerlane's first two posts on this subject. These are the reasons people gave for wanting Obama to produce the long form: I just want him to, a request, it is not logical to not show it, transparency, proof, he must do it.

Geez folks, can't we come up with something better than this? Transparency is good, but I know Obama is not transparent with or without the long form. Proof? The State Department felt they had enough proof with the COLB and so no court will question that.

Jeannie said it was not really up to debate but what was, "under the law." That sounds like a good idea. So let's talk about the law then.

I already cited Section 1 of the 14th Amendment above. I cited it in the comments section several times too. So evidently that is not enough. So what else is there?

Like many of our laws this one is vague and requires additional interpretation. So I went out and looked for more and found it.

Title Eight of the US Code, Section 1401 defines and interprets the wording in the 14th Amendment. I cite it below.

Those who qualify to be a natural born citizen must meet one of the following requirements:

1. Anyone born inside the United States

2. Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the US does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe

3. Anyone born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the US, as long as one parent has lived in the US

4. Anyone born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the US for at least one year, and the other parent is a US national

5. Anyone born in a US possession (Puerto Rico, etc), if one parent is a citizen and lived in the US for at least one year

6. Anyone found in the US under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is NOT provided by age twenty-one

7. Anyone born outside the US, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the US who lived in the US for a period totaling at least five years, two of those years must be after the parent is fourteen years old.

8. Any person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a US citizen mother who has lived in the US.

So even if Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii as claims, he would fall under number 7 above because his mother was a US citizen who met the requirements of living in the US for at least 5 years, two of which were after the age of fourteen.

I know these facts will not stop anyone from believing what they want, nor from still wanting to see his long form birth certificate. It's a free country.