The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) has cited the infamous 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which stated that enslaved people weren’t citizens, to argue that Vice President Kamala Harris is ineligible to run for president according to the Constitution.

The group also challenged the right of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley to appear on Republican primary ballots.

The Republican group’s platform and policy document noted that “The Constitutional qualifications of Presidential eligibility” states that “No person except a natural born Citizen, shall be eligible, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

The same document included former President Donald Trump’s running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance on a list of preferred candidates for vice president.

The group, which adopted the document during their last national convention held between October 13 and 15 last year, goes on to argue in the document that a natural-born citizen has to be born in the US to parents who are citizens when the child is born, pointing to the thinking of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

  • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    that child is a natural born citizen because they were born in the USA (birthright citizenship) to an American citizen.

    If you are born in the USA, your parent’s citizenship is irrelevant. Have you ever heard the term “anchor baby”? Also, if one of your parents is a US Citizen then you are a US Citizen no matter where you were born. (There are some refinements to this that have changed over the years regarding how much time the parent has lived in the US) That’s what made the Obama thing so stupid — it doesn’t matter if he was born overseas, he’d still be a US citizen via his mother.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Correct. This group is arguing against that and claiming one is not a citizen unless *both *parents are current US citizens. I’m pointing out the flaws in their argument.