The video is so riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods that it is cringeworthy. Right from the get go we get a big one — there were no hearings
“to establish John McCain’s citizenship status.” I want my 5 minutes back!
As jam321 and others pointed out, SR 511 was a
non-binding resolution; it has no legal or legislative weight, it serves only as informative of
the Senate’s position on a particular issue.
The resolution is not defining a natural born citizen, it’s merely
recognizing McCain’s circumstances, namely that he had two citizen
parents and was born on a military base, and that they don’t believe the Framers intended to prevent the children of US servicemen and women from
being able to serve as President. Considering this, they recognize McCain fulfills the Constitutional requirement.
But, and contrary to the video’s premise, the resolution
couldn’t define what a natural born citizen is even if it was their intention. If
Congress wanted to define what natural born citizen means they would have to do it through a Constitutional amendment.
Now regarding McCain’s status. The fact that McCain was born on a US military base plays no part in defining his citizenship or natural born
citizenship. “
U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities abroad are not part of the United States within
the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not born in the United States and does not acquire U.S.
citizenship by reason of birth.” [Department of State
Foreign Affairs
Manual, at 5]
McCain is a US citizen by virtue of the
8 USC 1403 statute, conferring citizenship to children of US
citizens born in the Canal Zone, passed by Congress in 1937.
The question of natural born citizenship status of persons born in the United States is settled law. The Supreme Court settled that question in 1898,
when in
Wong Kim Ark the Court unambiguously stated that anyone born
in the United States, except children of foreign diplomats and enemy soldiers during invasion, was a natural born citizen.
The only uncertainty in US jurisprudence when it comes to natural born citizenship status is of persons born
outside the United States, which
is McCain’s case.
I have no problem with McCain, or any other US citizen, for that matter, being able to serve as President. I am against the natural born citizen
clause and have criticized it frequently. It’s a mess, its language is not even crafted correctly.
The Vattelists only adhere to that absurd interpretation of natural born citizen because they think it disqualifies Obama, but the reality is that if
it were the standing interpretation it disqualifies McCain as well, because US military bases are not US soil for 14th Amendment purposes (cf.
Department of State FAM above).
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what birthers think the definition of natural born citizen is, or what Vattel wrote, because what the law says is what
matters and, currently, anyone born in the United States, safe for the aforementioned exceptions, is a natural born citizen.
