Qualifications for President and the “Natural Born” Citizenship Eligibility Requirement
become citizens at birth by statute because of their status in being born abroad of American citizens.”[1]
History of the Qualifications Clause in the Federal Convention of 1787
Procedural History
The particular clause concerning presidential eligibility and citizenship was placed in the Constitution and approved at the Convention of 1787 with no debate, objection, or comment. The five-person Committee of Detail, appointed by the Convention delegates to report a draft Constitution containing issues and items agreed upon by the Convention up to that point,[2] was instructed by the Convention, on July 26, 1787, to consider provisions requiring certain qualifications for Congress and the Presidency.[3] Although the subsequent report on August 6 from the Committee of Detail contained qualifications for Senator and Representative, it did not offer qualifications for President.[4] On August 20, the Convention adopted a motion by Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts that the “Committee be instructed to report proper qualifications for the President…,”[5] and on August 22, the Committee of Detail reported its recommendation that several additions be made to the report it had made, including the following concerning the qualifications of the President: “[H]e shall be of the age of thirty five years, and a Citizen of the United States, and shall have been an Inhabitant thereof for Twenty one years.”[6] The report of the Committee of Detail was then “considered” and “postponed” on August 22, so “that each member might furnish himself with a copy.”[7]
In the subsequent days, the provisions for the qualifications of President were not taken up and thus not agreed upon by the whole Convention, and on August 31, 1787, the delegates agreed to “refer such part of the Constitution as have been proposed, and such parts of reports as have not been acted upon to a Committee of a Member from each State,”[8] which has been referred to as the (third) “Committee of Eleven,” or the “Committee on Postponed Matters.” On Tuesday, September 4, 1787, the (third) Committee of Eleven “partially” reported to the Convention
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, The Constitution of the United States of America, Analysis and Interpretation, S. Doc. 108–17, at 456–457 (2004). [Constitution Annotated]. The United States Senate has also stated its opinion by way of unanimous consent, in S.Res. 511, 110th Congress, that natural born citizens includes those persons born abroad of U.S. citizens.
- ↑ Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. II, at 85, 97 (Yale University Press 1911) [hereinafter Farrand]. On Monday July 23, 1787, the Convention delegates unanimously agreed to appoint the committee “for the purpose of reporting a Constitution conformably to the Proceedings aforesaid….”
- ↑ II Farrand, at 116–117, 121–125. The instruction was to draft provisions “requiring certain qualifications of landed property and citizenship in the United States for the Executive, the Judiciary, and the Members of both branches of the Legislature of the United States….,” although the word “landed” was removed upon agreement of a motion by Mr. Madison of Virginia to strike out that word (and thus that qualification). Id. at 123–124.
- ↑ Id. at 177–179, 185.
- ↑ Id. at 337, 344.
- ↑ Id. at 366–367.
- ↑ Id. at 376.
- ↑ Id. at 473.
