You could have heard the rumor that Kamala Harris is ineligible for president because neither of her parents were born within the United States and her citizenship status was unclear when Harris was born in Oakland, California in 1964.
This is the false claim that some Harris opponents have began to come back back into circulation since she became the Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to step down on July 21, 2024. The claim created in 2020when she was chosen as Biden’s vice presidential candidate.
John Eastman, Trump's former legal adviser who was indicted for alleged interference within the 2020 presidential electionoriginally circulated this claim. But mainstream jurisprudence Scientists agree: There isn’t any truth in that.
The reuse of this untruth provides a chance to explore the actual facts about presidential eligibility by taking a look at some candidates from recent history.
Harris is protected by birthright
How can we know that the claims about Harris' eligibility are false?
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution sets out the rule: “No person not being a natural born citizen, or possessing an American citizenship at the time of the adoption of this Constitution,” Section 1 states, “shall be eligible for the office of President.”
The other requirements for the presidency enshrined within the Constitution – that a candidate should be not less than 35 years old and have lived within the United States for 14 years before running – are pretty clear. But what does the document mean by “natural born citizen”?
The original Constitution doesn’t provide any details on this, but courts and legislators have given their opinion on it since its inception. The first evidence is the 14. Amendmentwhich was passed after the Civil War to be certain that formerly enslaved black Americans and their children were recognized as residents.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” the amendment states, “are citizens of the United States.”
The 14th Amendment establishes what is often referred to as “Birthright“- that a person born on American soil need do nothing further to become a full citizen of the United States. Supreme Court cases Since the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it has been made explicitly clear that persons born in America to foreign parents are considered “natural born.”
Whether Harris could be an efficient president is something voters will determine in just a few months. Legally, nevertheless, she is perfectly entitled to carry the office. Because Harris was born within the United States, the citizenship status or birthplace of either of her parents is irrelevant. Even these facts haven’t silenced a number of the recent lies-mongers who’ve claimed that Harris was not born within the United States. However, her birth certificate was reviewed by the Associated Press and it was determined that she was not born within the United States. confirmed that she was born in Oakland.
Can foreign-born candidates run for president?
There have been cases in history which are more complicated than Harris's. There have been various presidential candidates who weren’t born in one in all the 50 states. So is being born outside the United States a disqualification criterion for the office of president?
Not necessarily. Take, for instance, the late Senator from Arizona John McCain, the Republican candidate in 2008. McCain was not born in a state, but within the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, when his father was stationed there as a naval officer. The Canal Zone was under American control. on the time of McCain’s birth. And because the 14th Amendment states that citizenship also applies to those “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, McCain was eligible to function President.
At that point, McCain cited as a precedent for his eligibility the successful nomination of Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate of 1964 who was born within the Arizona Territory in 1909, just just a few years before it was admitted to the Union as a state.
Even McCain’s predominant Democratic rivals for the presidency, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was co-initiator of a resolution in April 2008, claiming that McCain was a “natural born citizen” and due to this fact qualified to be president.
McCain was probably off the hook because historically US law states that somebody “born outside the United States to one or more U.S. parents is a U.S. citizen at birth.” This is identical precedent that, had he been elected President, have probably applied to U.S. Senator and 2016 candidate Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas who was born in Canada but whose mother was a native American citizen.
Race and ethnicity within the background
No major presidential candidate has ever been in serious danger due to natural born citizen clause, and Harris isn’t any exception.
However, the Constitution doesn’t protect them from the identical form of racially motivated political Attacks committed by Donald Trump against Obama, a years-long crusade referred to as “birtherism.” During Obama’s presidency, Trump falsely claimed that Obama was not born within the United States. As has been documented, Obama was born in Hawaii.
None of the vp's most outstanding critics, including Trump, have made such extreme accusations against Harris. But as with Obama, there’s an unspoken, racist insinuation behind this: This candidate is a foreigner. He is just not such as you and me. He is anti-American.
image credit : theconversation.com