Source: https://www.thepostemail.com/2016/04/04/of-neologisms-end-around-runs-and-gorillas-the-congressional-research-service-2016-report-on-presidential-eligibility-part-ii/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:04:42+00:00

Document:
(Apr. 4, 2016) — [Editor’s Note: The following is a continuation of an in-depth analysis of the meaning of the “natural born Citizen” requirement present in Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution and how a series of Congressional Research Service (CRS) memos dating back to April 3, 2009 through January 11, 2016, appear to purposely ignore historical documentation of the Founders’ intent when agreeing to include the term.
In his continuing analysis, DeMaio contends that the “natural born” status cannot be “legislatively concocted,” as Maskell appears to suggest.
Memo alert to readers: listen up, grab some coffee and pay attention, as this gets even more convoluted. First, as was true with regard to the unprincipled misrepresentations made in footnote 215 of the 2011 CRS Report and in footnote 207 of the present 2016 CRSR as to what, purportedly, the dissenters in the Wong Kim Ark case actually said, footnote 96 builds on the deceptions of the others by including, in a single footnote, two deceptions.
That is a demonstrably false statement. In fact, there is abundant evidence – at least to anyone desirous of learning the truth underlying the reasons for the elimination of the modifier – in the available recorded legislative history of 1 Stat. 414 (see 3 Annals of Congress 1033 – 1058 [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=004/llac004.db&recNum=432]).
That history suggests that, consistent with the concerns articulated by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 68 with respect to the goal of erecting the highest possible barrier against “foreign influence” in the office of the “Chief Magistrate,” the repeal and removal of the term “natural born” before the word “citizen” was in recognition of the potential that, at some future date, a person who was not actually born within the geographic boundaries of the United States to two parents who were, at the time of birth, already U.S. citizens, could claim constitutional eligibility to the presidency as a “natural born Citizen.” Such a potential was seen as “an idea which ought not, explicitly or impliedly, to be admitted.” (Emphasis added) (Remarks of Cong. James Hillhouse, id. at 1046).
Earlier in the debate regarding passage of the 1795 act, Cong. Hillhouse stated that “the ground upon which foreigners should be admitted to a share in the administration of our Government ought to be narrowed in every possible way, and that if the gentleman would so modify the amendment [relating to renunciation by aliens of hereditary titles as a condition of being eligible for naturalization and admission to citizenship, moved by Cong. Giles] as wholly to exclude that class of foreigners, or any other, from ever becoming citizens, so far as to elect or be elected to any office, he would most heartily join in giving his vote for it.” (Emphasis added) (Remarks of Cong. Hillhouse, id. at 1045).
Moreover, Cong. Hillhouse was noted as taking the position with regard to foreign influence in the newly-formed government that he was unalterably opposed to any law which would “…indirectly establish the principle that [foreign] privileged orders might be introduced and exist among us, a principle which he wholly rejected and reprobated.” (Emphasis added). Id.
Had such children been intended by Congress to be eligible to the presidency, Congress would have – but did not – characterize them as being “considered natural-born citizens of the United States” on a par with those later similarly “considered” as such if born abroad to U.S. citizen parents. However, Congress plainly realized that, in enacting 1 Stat. 103 and enacting 1 Stat. 414 which repealed in toto 1 Stat. 103, it was exercising its authority under Art. 1, § 8, Cl. 4 of the Constitution. As noted in the Schneider case, that power is confined and jurisdictionally restricted to legislating with regard to “naturalization.” It is not a license to legislatively concoct “natural-born eligibility” (also a neologism) or to amend the Constitution by statute.
Thus, Congress may be seen to have realized its oversight in 1 Stat. 103 by “correcting” it with the enactment of 1 Stat. 414 and the repeal of 1 Stat. 103 in 1795. Plainly, this corrective action eliminated – or should have eliminated – any confusion created by its use of the “natural born” modifier in the earlier statute.
The only rational interpretation to be given to these comments recorded in the Annals of Congress (the predecessor to the Congressional Record) is that Congress recognized that in its original statute, 1 Stat. 103, it had improperly and extra-constitutionally broadened the category of persons who might be seen as “natural born citizens” eligible to the presidency beyond that fixed in the Constitution itself. Even in 1795, Congress realized that if the Constitution is to be the “supreme law of the Land” (Art. 6, Constitution), its provisions could not be altered or amended by statute, but only by compliance with the requirements of Art. 5 of the Constitution (which many of the members of that Congress had recently drafted and adopted).
If the Constitution’s presidential eligibility clause is to be seen as intended to “narrow” and “wholly exclude” persons who are other than “natural born Citizens,” as that concept is articulated in § 212 of de Vattel’s work, then the 1795 repeal of the “natural born” modifier of the term “citizen” with reference to children born to U.S. citizen parents elsewhere can be seen only as confirming and ratifying the intent of the Founders to absolutely restrict eligibility to the presidency to those persons born here to parents who are already citizens. No other rational explanation exists.
Moreover, this widely-available legislative history – accessible by anyone with a computer and an interest in discovering the truth as opposed to having a predetermined desire to obfuscate and conceal the truth – constitutes far more than a mere “stylistic/grammatical deletion” as posited by Mr. Maskell in fn. 96 of the 2016 CRS Report. On the contrary, it is manifest competent evidence that the Congress intended, in exercising its constitutional powers with respect to “naturalization,” to correct its prior mistaken journey into creating another class of people who might be seen as eligible to the presidency, but who were, in fact, not so eligible.
Restricting the office to persons born in this nation to two parents who, at the time of the birth, are also citizens of the nation as contemplated in § 212 of de Vattel’s tome presents the highest barrier against improper foreign (i.e., alien) influence. Any standard less than that – such as the one advocated by the 2016 CRS Report – cannot be squared with the clear legislative history of the repeal of 1 Stat. 103 and the enactment of 1 Stat. 414.
At minimum, according to § 212 of Vattel’s tome, the child must be born of a father who is already a citizen, because “in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.” See, e.g., http://www.thepostemail.com/2015/11/25/of-naturalized-and-natural-born-the-courts-point-of-view/.
The 2016 CRSR cites and relies on numerous sources in going about its circuitous tasks. One such source cited throughout the report is Professor James H. Kettner and his work “The Development of American Citizenship, 1608 – 1870” (hereinafter “Kettner”). See 2016 CRSR at 3, fn. 13; 8, fn. 41; 11, fn. 52; 27, text and fn. 129. While the 2016 CRSR cites many portions of the Kettner work in purported support of its narrative, the book also contains some relevant discussion which the report’s author would likely prefer be ignored. Perhaps that is why the following discussion does not appear in the 2016 CRSR.
Specifically, Professor Kettner notes (Id. at 230) that with regard to the eligibility requirements for the presidency, the Constitutional Convention received, on August 22, 1787, a report from the “Committee of Detail” outlining the qualifications for the chief executive. That report proposed that the chief executive “shall be of the age of thirty-five years, and a citizen of the United States, and shall have been an inhabitant thereof for twenty-one years.” (Emphasis added). Idem.
Professor Kettner then continues: “This [Committee of Detail report] in turn was amended by the Committee of Eleven on September 4 [, 1787] to require that the president be a ‘natural born Citizen or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution.’ Persons naturalized before ratification, then, were eligible for the office on basically the same terms as native Americans; persons adopted thereafter were permanently barred from the presidency – the only explicit constitutional limitation on their potential rights.” (Emphasis added). Idem.
Rocket science, this is not: the clear import and meaning of that passage is that, from Professor Kettner’s perspective, foreign aliens (i.e., non-U.S. citizens) who were “adopted” (i.e., brought into the national body politic as naturalized citizens rather being “born” in the nation) after the ratification of the Constitution were to be “permanently barred” from holding the office of the president.
As discussed hereafter, that is why the Founders inserted the “citizen grandfather clause” in Art. 2, § 1, Cl. 5, allowing as an exception to the “natural born Citizen” eligibility restriction those persons who were already merely “citizens” at the time of the nation’s birth following the formal severance with Great Britain effectuated in 1776 by the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, without the “citizen/grandfather” exception, George Washington – born in Virginia, British America, in 1732 to a mother (Mary Ball) and father (Augustine) who were at the time of his birth both British subjects – could not have served as President after ratification of the Constitution because of the “natural born Citizen” restriction.
Jay’s letter used the phrase “any but a natural born Citizen.” The Committee of Eleven, and ultimately the Constitution, used the phrase “No person except a natural born Citizen….” Under either phrase, the conclusion is inescapable that through the use of this restrictive, limiting language, the Founders intended to strictly prohibit and exclude from eligibility to the office any person other than a “natural-born Citizen.” Under the 2016 CRSR, that could mean, literally, tens of millions of people. Ask yourself this: is that what motivated Hamilton when he wrote Federalist 68?
Finally, against this historical Constitutional Convention factual backdrop, Professor Kettner confirms that “[t]here was an implicit assumption that birth within the United States conferred citizenship – the president was to be a ‘natural born citizen’ resident in the United States….” Id.
Even under the irrational theory espoused by the 2016 CRS Report – i.e., that any person born to a U.S. citizen anywhere in the world or that a person born here without regard to the two parents’ citizenship satisfies the eligibility requirements of Art. 2, § 1, Cl. 5 – it is clear that a compelling argument can be made that Professor Kettner recognized that the Founders intended that the birth needed to be, at minimum, actually within the geographic boundaries of the United States. Calgary, Alberta, Canada does not fit that description.
Quite apart from Professor Kettner’s discussion of why persons “adopted” into the nation via statutory naturalization were to be “permanently barred” from eligibility to the presidency, the 2016 CRSR cites Professor Kettner’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s decision in Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). This, of course, is the infamous “Dred Scott” decision, in which Chief Justice Roger Taney (joined by six other Justices, with Justices John McLean, a Harvard-educated Republican, and Benjamin Curtis, also a Harvard-educated Republican, dissenting) held that slaves, and even freed slaves, including their offspring, were not “citizens” of the United States.
The decision, of course, was abrogated – not to be confused with “overruled,” which only the Supreme Court can do to its own opinions – by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution following the Civil War. It is virtually universally condemned as the “worst and most vilified Supreme Court decision in the history of the United States.” See CRSR at 26-27 text and fn. 126. On this singular point, your faithful servant agrees with the 2016 CRSR.
However, after first establishing that the “Dred Scott” decision is an abomination, the 2016 CRSR then proceeds to associate it with the beliefs and arguments of certain “birthers.” Reprobation by association. Déclassé, of course, but not unexpected.
The patent irony of both Mr. Maskell’s “highly exclusionary reading” comment in the 2016 CRSR and the “consistent exclusionist principles” quoted from Professor Kettner’s work is that the historical record is replete with proof that this is precisely what the Founders intended when they changed the eligibility clause to read “natural born Citizen” from the prior “citizen” language. As much as Messrs. Maskell and Kettner might wish that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulated the topic of presidential eligibility, that topic is governed – mercifully – by Art. 2, § 1, Cl. 5 of the Constitution and not the EEOC.
Stated otherwise, consistent with § 212 of de Vattel’s work, the Founders specifically sought to erect the highest possible, “highly exclusionary” standard for the office of the chief executive rather than an “open-arms-to-anyone” standard.
From the concerns articulated in Federalist 68; to the floor debates surrounding the deletion of the modifier term preceding the word “citizen” in 1 Stat. 414; to the numerous references to de Vattel’s “Law of Nations” as being “continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting… ” (B. Franklin, Dec. 9, 1775 letter to Charles William Frederic Dumas), the intent of the Founders was to erect the highest possible barrier to foreign influence insinuating itself into the presidency.
Professor Kettner’s criticism of Judge Taney’s decision in the Dred Scott case must be viewed against the distinguishing backdrop that the only issue in the case was whether or not, by virtue of a slave’s status as “property” rather than as a “citizen,” the suit could be maintained in the first place. The case did not involve any question involving an analysis of whether Mr. Scott was a “natural born Citizen” within the meaning of the Constitution’s eligibility clause.
Professor Kettner’s comment, therefore, that Justice Taney could achieve his desired result only by “distorting history and making ‘bad law’” has a parallel here: only by distorting history through ellipsis deletion of the words of Supreme Court cases; and/or inserting bracketed and conclusory comments into historical quotes, changing their meanings; and/or failing to reveal the legislative history behind the repeal of the “natural-born” modifier before the term “citizen” in 1 Stat. 414 can the faulty “logic” of the 2016 CRSR be understood.
Thus, in both the 2009 and 2011 documents, Mr. Maskell argued that, based on the language that had been altered by the ellipsis, the Supreme Court purportedly “stated” in Perkins v. Elg (carefully avoiding the term “held” or “ruled”) that such a person would be a “natural born citizen” despite the (false) fact that his parents were “aliens” (as the 2009 document characterized them) or possessed “dual citizenship” (as the 2011 document characterized them).
In fact, the father, Steinkauler the elder, was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1854 and his wife was also a U.S. citizen by marriage. Their son was born to these two U.S. citizens in 1855 in St. Louis, Missouri. Thus, the son (Steinkauler the younger) was, in reality, a “natural born citizen” as characterized by Attorney General Pierrepont because he was born to two U.S. citizen parents within the geographic boundaries of the United States.
By misrepresenting the status of his father as being either an “alien” (as in the 2009 document) or as possessing “dual citizenship” (as in the 2011 document), both the 2009 and the 2011 CRS documents portray the status of the son as a “natural born citizen” eligible to the presidency despite the purported (and false) painting of his father as being an alien or a person with dual citizenship. In fact, the son was a natural born citizen because both of his parents were U.S. citizens when he was born here, thereby making Attorney General Pierrepont’s “become President of the United States” observation understandable.
But wait… there’s still more.
Why the previously-missing language has been restored in the 2016 CRSR is at present unclear. Perhaps it was because the linguistic chicanery was first exposed here, but the fact that it has happened at all is noteworthy. Or perhaps it is because now, as opposed to in 2009 and 2011, the question of eligibility arises in the context of a person who may possess dual citizenship as opposed to a person whose father was never a U.S. citizen, thereby transgressing the principles of § 212 of de Vattel’s work.
So altered, the language is made to appear that the Supreme Court adopted the Attorney General’s conclusion that, “even though” the father’s renunciation of his American citizenship took place after the son’s birth, it had no effect on the son’s “dual citizenship” nor on the Attorney General’s opinion that, if and when the son attained majority and returned to the United States, “in due time, if the people elect, he can become President.” See 2016 CRSR at 43.
In fact, Attorney General Pierrepont characterized Steinkauler the younger as a “native-born American citizen” when, in fact, he qualified as a “natural-born citizen” by virtue of the fact (obscured in the 2009 and 2011 CRS products) that when he was born in St. Louis, both his mother and father were, via naturalization and marriage, U.S. citizens.
Through selective editing via ellipses and bracketed insertions of words not appearing in the Attorney General’s opinion, the 2016 CRSR document seeks to make the case that Perkins v. Elg stands for the proposition that, even if one is born here to alien parents or parents with dual citizenship, that person, despite the foreign citizenship of the parents, would nonetheless support the conclusion that the person was a “citizen at birth” and thus eligible to the presidency, the logic and principles of de Vattel’s § 212 notwithstanding.
In fact, as was the case with Steinkauler the younger, Marie Elg was a natural born citizen because, at the moment of her birth in Brooklyn, New York (Oct. 2, 1907), both of her parents were naturalized U.S citizens, her father renouncing his Swedish citizenship and becoming an American citizen in 1906.
’The term ‘dual nationality’ needs exact appreciation. It refers to the fact that two States make equal claim to the allegiance of an individual at the same time. Thus, one State may claim his allegiance because of his birth within its territory [jus soli], and the other because at the time of his birth in foreign territory his parents were its nationals [jus sanguinis].. The laws of the United States purport to clothe persons with American citizenship by virtue of both principles.’ (Emphasis added) Id.
The use by the U.S. State Department of the terminology “clothe persons with American citizenship by virtue of both principles…,” i.e., jus soli and jus sanguinis, runs exactly counter to the 2016 CRS narrative that only “place of birth” (jus soli) matters in determinations of whether one is a “natural born Citizen.” Clearly, parentage (i.e., jus sanguinis) plays a role as well.
Because of their fundamental concern that the Chief Magistrate possess undivided loyalty and allegiance to the United States alone, unencumbered by any foreign influence whatsoever, the snake oil being peddled by the 2016 CRSR that the Founders simultaneously intended to adopt a “non-Vatellian” definition of the term – which, by the way, would open up the office to the very persons the Founders wished to exclude – is nonsense. Dangerous nonsense. Witness what exists today at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.
7 Responses to "Of Neologisms, End-Around Runs and Gorillas: The Congressional Research Service 2016 Report on Presidential Eligibility, Part II"
There is no doubt that the CRS memorandums by Jack Maskell are disingenuous and misleading. Why this is so is another matter of concern that has not been addressed.
The matter of Cruz’s birthright is not significant in the Congressional acts of 1790 or 1795 as they relate to naturalization and define children’s citizenship based only on that of the father and/or place of birth. Cruz has claimed to be a “natural born” citizen by virtue of his mother’s U.S. citizenship. However it was not until May 1934 when Congress revised naturalization laws in statute 1993 to declare that a child born to a US citizen mother in a foreign country became an automatically naturalized US citizen at birth. All children born outside of US soil and declared to be US citizens by virtue of parentage are considered “naturalized” and not eligible to serve as POTUS.
Today’s politicians treat our constitution like motorists treat traffic laws!
This is closely related to getting the ineligible Obama in office. It allowed him, once there, to populate the Executive branch with as many treasonous scumbags as he wanted, which he immediately did.
The significance of this Executive Order, signed by George W. Bush on June 30th, 2008 should not be overlooked. It paved the way for Barry Hussein Obama and Biden to populate America’s federal government will all sorts of America hating scumbags with an agenda of weakening the most powerful nation in the World. Obama’s brain, Valerie Jarrett, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Barry’s many unvetted Czars and probably hundreds, if not thousands of others who would not have a prayer of passing a security background check are given a free pass. Congress mandated this Executive Order allowing the takeover be implemented by January 2009. That just happened to be when Barack Hussein Obama began populating the Executive branch with his equally treasonous “employees”, immune from the requirements for a security background check, just as Obama himself, members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices are.
The set-up worked and most people are not aware of this key element in it’s success.
Section 1.1. Policy. Executive branch policies and procedures relating to suitability, contractor employee fitness, eligibility to hold a sensitive position, access to federally controlled facilities and information systems, and eligibility for access to classified information shall be aligned using consistent standards to the extent possible, provide for reciprocal recognition, and shall ensure cost-effective, timely, and efficient protection of the national interest, while providing fair treatment to those upon whom the Federal Government relies to conduct our Nation’s business and protect national security.
If the above is not changed America will always be held hostage by the ability of the president and commander-in-chief to employ and provide information to the enemy anytime they want……….treason made “legal”.
A lot of work went into this article.. Very appreciated.
What seems the net results is the law was circumvented while the Treasury was looted 10 Trillion in 7 years.
We knew this Jack Maskell Memo was fooling Congress in the CRS administration the minute we started getting letters back from Congressmen referring their intelligence to it.
Uploaded on Jun 5, 2011Listen to the 5 Vetting Hurdles Obama cleared and see how Congress through the Jack Maskell Memo was deceived into letting the qualification of “natural born citizen” slide into the mud of the 14th Amendment. This is Dumb and Dumber- The CRS Memo and Congress today on The Lion’s Den Show with host Cody Robert Judy.
One thing that Professor Elhauge made clear was you can’t “naturalize” [natural born Citizen] which any attempt in excusing by statute or amendment of such circumstance as McCain, Obama, Rubio falls under.
I say kudos to both Harvard Professors Tribe and Elhauge who have agreed whole heartedly on this point, both being reasonably sound minded.
“Natural born” does not equal “natural” born, “natural” as a stand alone word being a state or condition of one’s birth, not subject to any act of Congress nor declaration of the Supreme court, and not alterable by such. The opposite of “natural” is not “un-natural”; it is “foreign, which is exactly what Ted Cruz is.
Congressman Hillhouse’s statement “an idea which ought not, explicitly or impliedly, to be admitted” is part of a larger argument he made.
Under Congressman Hillhouse’s example, a titled nobleman could come to the U.S., refuse to renounce his titles and thus not be eligible to become a U.S. citizen by naturalization. But his children would still be “natural born citizens”. Hmmmm, “natural born citizens” even though their father was an alien.

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