Natural Born Citizens and the U.S. Constitution

Mary Brigid McManamon, Widener University School of Law, is publishing The Natural Born Citizen Clause as Originally Understood in the Catholic University Law Review. Here is the abstract.

Article II of the Constitution requires that the President be a “natural born Citizen.” The phrase is derived from English common law, and the Supreme Court requires examination of that law to ascertain the phrase’s definition. This piece presents the pertinent English sources, combined with statements by early American jurists. Based on a reading of these materials, the article concludes that, in the eyes of the Framers, a presidential candidate must be born within the United States. The article is important because there have been candidates that “pushed the envelope” on this question in many elections over the last 50 years, and no article in the last century has correctly explained the common law definition. This article is timely because there will again be such a candidate in 2016 if Sen. Ted Cruz decides to run.

Download the full text from SSRN at the link.