Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Obama's Citizenship

The controversy over whether Barack Obama is a 'natural born citizen' as defined by the U.S. Constitution is getting air-time these days. I had heard about it during the campaign but didn't think much about it.

As usual, the first place I went for some enlightenment was Wikipedia, and I found this entry there. I wish I could say that it definitively resolved the issue one way or the other, but it really didn't. What it did do was to lay out many of the nuances and unresolved issues surrounding this constitutional provision. As with so many constitutional issues, it is never quite as black and white as I would like it to be (I hope you get the pun, though I just now saw it myself).

The interesting thing is that just as with Obama, there is also some question about the status of the constitutional citizenship of John McCain, actually more so. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone on a military base, and as the article points out, this may not fit the definition of 'natural born citizen.'

As for Obama, if he were born in Hawaii as his birth certificate certifies, then he is without a doubt a 'natural born citizen.' But those pushing this issue claim that he may have been born in Kenya instead. What evidence they have for this, I'm not sure. If that could be proved, of course, it might take a Supreme Court decision to straighten all this out. Since the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, it seems a dead-letter for now.

What is not in question is that Obama's mother was a U.S. citizen, which makes Barack a citizen as well from birth. To me, that should settle the issue. But for some reason, it doesn't seem to be that simple.

With everything confronting our country at this time in our history, it seems very odd that we should be dealing with this very obscure question. But I'm not one to push things under the rug, so I thought perhaps you would find a little discussion about it helpful.

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