Group also challenged right of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley to appear on Republican primary ballots

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.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
    10·
    3 months ago

    They would actually have to show at every point in their genealogical history, every single ancestor, going back to the founding of the country, was a citizen. If even one of their ancestors was an immigrant, then every child descended from them is not a natural born citizen.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      So… wait, so only Native Americans can be President?

      Maybe we should let them have this one. It would be interesting, at least.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      According to them a natural born citizen can be born to naturalized immigrant parents.

      Note that Donald Trump’s mother was born in Scotland but naturalized before Donald was born.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      They would actually have to show at every point in their genealogical history, every single ancestor, going back to the founding of the country, was a citizen. If even one of their ancestors was an immigrant, then every child descended from them is not a natural born citizen.

      I don’t think that’s required by their argument at all, merely that both parents be citizens (by birth or naturalized) when the child is born (this is stricter than is normally used, but is not ridiculously impossible to demonstrate like your suggestion). Them inventing this new definition and wanting to apply it to Kamala is just plain racism though.