Reporters need to ask people mentioned as Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates the correct question.

By: CDR Charles Kerchner (Ret) – ProtectOurLiberty.org - 28 May 2015

The correct question is not are you a “Citizen” but per the presidential eligibility clause in Article II of our U.S. Constitution, are you a “natural born Citizen” of the United States.

One cannot ignore a word or term in our U.S. Constitution.

Every word in it was chosen carefully and put there for a reason.

As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote in Holmes v. Jennison, 39 U.S. 540 (1840):

“In expounding the Constitution of the United States, every word must have its due force, and appropriate meaning; for it is evident from the whole

instrument, that no word was unnecessarily used, or needlessly added. The many discussions which have taken place upon the construction of the

constitution, have proved the correctness of this proposition; and shown the high talent, the caution, and the foresight of the illustrious men who framed

it. Every word appears to have been weighed with the utmost deliberation, and its force and effect to have been fully understood.”

Since, as Chief Justice Taney explained, every word in the U.S. Constitution is there for a specific reason, reporters should not be omitting words when asking presidential and/or vice-presidential candidates about their citizenship status. They should not be asking if the candidates or prospective candidates are simply a “Citizen“. Instead they should be asking if they are a “natural born Citizen” — to constitutional standards as intended and understood by the founders and framers. The adjective “natural” before the words “born Citizen” means something very specific. It means created by nature or natural law, not by positive, man-made laws such as Title 8 Section 1401, amendments, or treaties. Man-made laws cannot create a “natural born Citizen“. Only the laws of nature and the facts at the time of the persons birth can create a natural born Citizen.

The word “natural” points to the laws of nature and whether both your parents were U.S. citizens when you were born. It takes two U.S. citizens to procreate a natural born Citizen born in this country. A “natural born Citizen” is a person born in the country to parents who are both Citizens of the country. See this “Three Legged Stool Test for Natural Born Citizen” for more information.