Affirm Foundation!!! (Or, Twisting Judge Sullivan’s Opinion)

Well, ObamaReleaseYourRecords is at it again. Here’s another deceptive post:

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan Rules Natural Born Citizen Requirement Not Repealed By The 14th Amendment Or The 5th Amendment

Abdul Karim Hassan vs FEC – Court Opinion – District Court for the District of Columbia – 10/1/2012

MEMORANDUM OPINION

“Plaintiff Abdul Karim Hassan brings this action against the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”), seeking a declaratory judgment that (1) the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act, 26 U.S.C. §§ 9001-9013, which provides public funding to Presidential nominees of major or minor political parties, is unconstitutional and invalid, and (2) the natural born citizen clause of the Constitution1 is irreconcilable with, and has been “trumped, abrogated and implicitly repealed” by, the Equal Protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment and the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“Hassan’s challenge to the Fund Act rests on his contention that the natural born citizen requirement has been implicitly repealed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court need not repeat the thorough and persuasive opinions issued by its colleagues in at least five other jurisdictions, all of whom determined that the natural born citizen requirement has not been implicitly repealed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.”

“Moreover, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the distinction between natural born citizens and naturalized citizens in the context of Presidential eligibility remains valid.”

“Because the natural born citizen requirement has not been explicitly or implicitly repealed, Hassan’s challenge to that provision, and the Fund Act’s incorporation thereof, must fail.”

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/10/judge-sullivan-rules-14th-did-not-repeal-article-ii.html

The Birther take on this that YIPPEE, SEE ARTICLE II STILL APPLIES!!! THE !$TH AMENDMENT DIDN’T CHANGE THINGS AFTER ALL!!! Well, nobody on this side ever said Article II didn’t apply. It is the Birthers who either can’t, or won’t, understand the underlying concepts. The simple fact is that far from NOT REPEALING the natural born citizenship requirement for the Presidency, the 14th Amendment actively  AFFIRMED the common law concept of birthright citizenship, also known as natural born citizenship. From the SCOTUS decision in Wong Kim Ark (1898), near the bottom of Section V:

The foregoing considerations and authorities irresistibly lead us to these conclusions: the Fourteenth Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory, in the allegiance and under the protection of the country, including all children here born of resident aliens, with the exceptions or qualifications (as old as the rule itself) of children of foreign sovereigns or their ministers, or born on foreign public ships, or of enemies within and during a hostile occupation of part of our territory,[wild Indian exception omitted.]

The Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States. Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States. His allegiance to the United States is direct and immediate, and, although but local and temporary, continuing only so long as he remains within our territory, is yet, in the words of Lord Coke in Calvin’s Case, 7 Rep. 6a, “strong enough to make a natural subject, for if he hath issue here, that issue is a natural-born subject;”

and, this case cited with approval by the Wong Kim Ark Court:

“In United States v. Rhodes (1866), Mr. Justice Swayne, sitting in the Circuit Court, said:

All persons born in the allegiance of the King are natural-born subjects, and all persons born in the allegiance of the United States are natural-born citizens. Birth and allegiance go together. Such is the rule of the common law, and it is the common law of this country, as well as of England. . . . We find no warrant for the opinion [p663] that this great principle of the common law has ever been changed in the United States. It has always obtained here with the same vigor, and subject only to the same exceptions, since as before the Revolution.

1 Abbott (U.S.) 28, 40, 41.”

What the heck is sooo darn hard about that??? If you are born here, you are “in the allegiance” of the United States regardless of the citizenship of your parents. If you are born here in the allegiance, or under the jurisdiction of the United States, then you are a natural born citizen. Period. End of story. From WKA:

V. In the forefront both of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the fundamental principle of citizenship by birth within the dominion was reaffirmed in the most explicit and comprehensive terms.

Paraphrasing ORYR’s favorite quote, the only people who don’t get this, are people  who don’t want to get it. The Birthers have been lying and dissembling about this simple legal fact for 4 years. It started with Ankeny in Indiana back in 2008.

The Plaintiffs in the instant case make a different legal argument based strictly on constitutional interpretation. Specifically, the crux of the Plaintiffs’ argument is that

“[c]ontrary to the thinking of most People on the subject, there’s a very clear distinction between a  “citizen of the United States” and a “natural born Citizen,” and the difference involves having [two] parents of U.S. citizenship, owing no foreign allegiance.” Appellants’ Brief at 23. With regard to President Barack Obama, the Plaintiffs posit that because his father was a citizen of the United Kingdom, President Obama is constitutionally ineligible to assume the Office of the President.

The bases of the Plaintiffs’ arguments come from such sources as FactCheck.org, The Rocky Mountain News, an eighteenth century treatise by Emmerich de Vattel titled “The Law of Nations,” and various citations to nineteenth century congressional debate.11 For the reasons stated below, we hold that the Plaintiffs‟ arguments fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and that therefore the trial court did not err in dismissing the Plaintiffs‟ complaint.

No, there wasn’t a difference. Something like 7 or 8 subsequent courts have held the same thing. Sooo, of course the 14th Amendment didn’t overturn the  Article II Presidential requirement. It was way too busy affirming the underlying common law concept of natural born citizenship..

The Birthers should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to lie and dissemble about this.

Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter

Note 1. The Image. This is Scarlet O’Hara and Mammy from the 1939 film, Gone With The Wind.

Wiki has a great Internet Article on corsets, a foundation garment, which includes Images. This one is from 1898, the same year as Wong Kim Ark!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corset

Note 2. Pdf. Here is a pdf of Sullivan’s order. See pages 15 through 18:

Abdul-Karim-Hassan-vs-FEC-Court-Opinion-District-Court-for-the-District-of-Columbia-10-1-2012