That is, given how young Stanley Anne Dunnham was when her son Barrack was born, if he had been born outside the US, would he have counted as a natural born citizen for the purposes of the US presidency? Or would he have been denied that because his mother hadn’t lived long enough in the US post a certain age?
I’m sure I remember this being brought up on this board before. Something about living not only being a US citizen, but living in the US for four years after the age of 15; if you have a kid outside the US, said child counts as a natural born citizen, but before those four years it doesn’t. So, essentially, am 18-year-old American woman having a child outside the US would not confer natural born citizenship on her child.
FTR: I am not a birther and this is not intended as a debate. It’s also not necessarily about American citizenship, because that’s not always the same as being “a natural born citizen.”
This is an example of a law that needs clarifying in a court. The law doesn’t account for children, say, of a 14-year-old citizen who gives birth outside of the US --is that offspring ineligble to run for President? There is no obvious dispute of her citizenship, nor of her child’s, but the framers of the law did not think though (IMO) all of the ramifications, which is what courts are for.
This is called deritvative citizenship. This is how derivative citizenship works now, but I’d have to look up how it worked at the time Obama was born. But yes, the ability of U.S. citizens to transmit U.S. citizenship at borth to children born has generally dependended on the prior U.S. residence of the parent(s), although the details have varied.
If Barack Obama had been born abroad and if Stanley Anne Dunnham had been married to a non-citizen, Barack Obama would not have been a US Citizen at his birth and hence not a natural born citizen.
However, some have questioned whether her marriage was valid because her putative husband may not have divorced his previous wife. If Barack Obama had been born abroad and she had not been married, the requirement would only be that she had lived for one year in the United States and young Barack would have been born a citizen.
But all this is moot. Barack Obama was born in the United States and is a natural born citizen unless you can prove he was born to a foreign diplomat or an invading army.
Because you could get a situation where a young mother who does not meet the requirements but has lived in the USA since birth gives birth in another country and then what?
She has to hope and pray Kenya will allow her to immigrate so she can live with her baby?
Hell not all countries recognize jus soli, so the country the child is born is says he is not a citizen, and the USA says he can’t gain derivative citizenship? Then what?
According to the law today, if a very young mother gives birth overseas and the father is not a US citizen, her child will be a US citizen.
The previous five year requirement over age 14 wasn’t a deliberate policy decision that children of 18 year olds who give birth overseas should not be US citizens, they just didn’t think it through. It was a mistake, and the mistake has been changed.
Anyway, even if her child had not been a US citizen, that doesn’t mean the child would not be allowed to enter the United States.
