It does not matter if any parent is not a citizen, if that baby is born in the USA it IS a citizen

even 7th graders know this

I think they want a declaration that at least one parent must be a citizen at birth for a baby to be considered "natural born".

It's all about anti-Hispanic racism. They want to insure that so-called "anchor babies" (aka, Natural Born Citizen children of migrant workers) are never eligible to become president.

:grr:

(directed at him, not you)

The Supreme Court has the absolute final say in defining the meaning of a law. That's why Supreme Court appointments are so important.

On edit: Which is not to say that they would. Not even Thomas has that little regard for the law.

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.

Nothing about the parents.

As you said, this is middle school civics.

The Fourteenth Amendment extends citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". Diplomatic immunity extends to some family members. A child born in the U.S. to a foreign ambassador is entitled to diplomatic immunity at birth, and therefore is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and therefore is not a U.S. citizen.

Donofrio is trying to create a much broader exception. He argues that a child born in the U.S. can be a citizen but not a natural-born citizen if the child also has, at birth, citizenship in another country. I'm not aware of any precedent supporting such a reading. (As others have noted, this theory would make eligibility for the Presidency dependent in part on foreign law. In other contexts, any recognition of foreign law is anathema to the hardcore right wingers, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.)

but I don't see why the hell the Supremes are even giving this any credence whatsoever.

The freakin CONSTITUTION, which I expect Obama to dust off and start using again, says :

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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.



Seems pretty f'ing clear to me.:shrug: