Donald Trump has targeted Nikki Haley with “birther” claims, suggesting she is ineligible to be president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born.
Legal experts have dismissed these claims, citing the 14th Amendment, which confers citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the U.S.
Trump has a history of promoting such claims, previously targeting Barack Obama and Ted Cruz. (Trending: Clintons Scramble To Delete Embarrassing Photo, But Were Too Slow)
Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, wrote, “The birther claims against Nikki Haley are totally baseless as a legal and constitutional matter.”
“I can’t imagine what Trump hopes to gain by those claims unless it’s to play the race card against the former governor and UN ambassador as a woman of color — and to draw on the wellsprings of anti-immigrant prejudice by reminding everyone that Haley’s parents weren’t citizens when she was born in the USA,” he continued.
Burt Neuborne, a professor emeritus at New York University Law School, said, “Someone should tell him [Trump] that the North won” the Civil War.
“If you’re born in the United States, the whole purpose of the 14th Amendment was to make you a citizen,” he continued.
Neal Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under Obama, and Paul Clement, who was solicitor general under President George W. Bush, wrote, “But as Congress has recognized since the Founding, a person born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent is generally a U.S. citizen from birth with no need for naturalization. And the phrase ‘natural born Citizen’ in the Constitution encompasses all such citizens from birth.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, said, “It’s an offensive question that’s contrary to American values.”
“The Founding Fathers imposed a restriction, but it’s hard to believe that it was meant to burden a second generation of American citizens born on American soil like Nikki Haley. But nonetheless, the question of the term ‘natural born citizen’ has not been fully fleshed out in the courts, and it may be that Trump is relegating us to more meaningless discourse in this area just like he did with the birther lies about Obama,” she continued.
While some find Trump’s suggestion offensive, it raises questions about the interpretation of “natural born citizen,” potentially leading to legal discourse.
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