Senator says Obama's birth location doesn't matter

In a new twist to the Washington arguments against questioning President Obama's birthplace, the senior senator from South Dakota says it just doesn't matter.

Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Jr.

In a letter responding to an inquiry from a constituent, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., says Barack Obama "is a natural born citizen of the United States regardless of the location of his birth."

"President Obama's mother was a citizen of the United States, and children of American citizens are conferred citizenship at birth, meaning that Barack Obama was born a citizen of this country regardless of the location of his birth," Johnson's letter, dated earlier this month, said.

The citizen who had inquired, who blogs as "Constitutionallyspeaking" in the state, was outraged.

"In ALL of my correspondence, I supplied Sen. Johnson and his staff with congressional records and numerous historical documents along with Supreme Court … opinions and commentary and this is what they come back at me with," wrote the blogger, Linda.

"Citizenship at birth can never be changed. History and research are very clear on this point. However, the actions of the person once they become of age, come into play as to qualifications for any elected office, thus the reason for the 14-year requirement in Article II, Section 1, Clause V," she wrote.

"According to the U.S. Legislature, the definition of 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' was defined as 'Not owing allegiance to anybody else.' Therefore, that rule prevents us from interpreting 'natural born' under the 14th Amendment because it eliminates the possibility of a child being born with more than one allegiance. Remember, BHO aka BHS held dual allegiances at birth. He, himself has publicly acknowledged the fact that his father was a British subject at the time of BHO's birth, therefore he, himself was also a British subject at birth," she said.

"How can a United States natural born citizen's citizenship status be governed by the British Crown at birth?" the constituent continued. "The Constitution is very clear as to the qualifications for POTUS, and there is no birth certificate of Barack Obama that would make any difference. The fact that he had dual citizenship at birth proves he was not a 'natural born' citizen. He is a citizen under the 14th amendment which defines citizens born to parents when one parent is not a U.S. citizen."

She then cites the Department of State's Foreign Affairs Manual and states, "It has never been determined definitively by a court whether a person who acquired U.S. citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizens is a natural born citizen within the meaning of Article II of the Constitution, and, therefore, eligible for the presidency."

The fact that Obama's mother was a citizen doesn't really matter, she wrote. "At the time of his birth, Obama's mother was not old enough to confer her American citizenship to her newborn son had he been born abroad."

She cites a 1952 law that required a U.S. citizen married to an alien to have been physically present in the United States for 10 years, including five after reaching the age of 14, to transmit citizenship to foreign-born children. Obama's mother was 18 when he was born.

A WND message left with the senator's Washington office seeking comment was not returned.

WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions.

WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.

"Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard helps light up the night at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Because of the dearth of information about Obama's eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: "Where's the birth certificate?"

The campaign followed a petition that has collected about 475,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.

The "certification of live birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.

Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.

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