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Paul R. Hollrah, O.E.
Obama's Dual Citizenship
October 13,
2009
Beginning in March 2008, a number of court cases were filed challenging
Senator John McCain’s eligibility to serve as President of the United
States. The first McCain eligibility challenge was filed by a Nashua,
New Hampshire Republican named Fred Hollander.
In his petition, Hollander asserted that he brought
the action to prevent the disenfranchisement of himself and an estimated
100 million additional voters who might otherwise cast their votes in
the 2008 General Election for a candidate who may later be declared
ineligible for the Office of President. Hollander alleged that McCain
was ineligible to serve because he was not born within the geographic
boundaries of the United States.
McCain was represented by former U.S. Solicitor
General Theodore B. Olson, a conservative Republican, and by Harvard Law
professor Laurence H. Tribe, a liberal Democrat. Olson and Tribe
prepared a memorandum on the "natural born citizen” question which
concluded that McCain was, in fact, a natural-born citizen based on: a)
the place of his birth [the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama
Canal Zone, a U.S. military installation], b) the citizenship of his
parents [both were natural born U.S. citizens], and c) their service to
the country.
Hoping to put an end to what were clearly groundless challenges to
McCain’s eligibility, the U.S. Senate on April 30, 2008, passed a
resolution, by a vote of 99-0, declaring that, "Whereas John
Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American
military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That John Sidney McCain, III, is a ‘‘natural born
citizen’’ under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United
States.
What is most intriguing about the Senate Resolution is the emphasis
placed on the citizenship status of both of McCain’s parents. In an
April 10, 2008 statement in support of the resolution, Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, "Based on
the understanding of the pertinent sources of constitutional meaning, it
is widely believed that if someone is born to American citizens
anywhere in the world they are natural born citizens. Because he
was born to American citizens, there is no doubt in my mind that
Senator McCain is a natural born citizen (emphasis added).”
In short, one of the most celebrated heroes of the Vietnam War, a man
who suffered almost daily torture at the hands of his Vietnamese
captors, a man who refused repatriation because he would have been
released from captivity ahead of men who’d been imprisoned longer than
he, a man with a distinguished military career who was the son and the
grandson of U.S. Navy admirals... this man was made to undergo rigorous
vetting before the members of the United States Senate voted unanimously
that he was eligible to serve as President of the United States.
But what about Obama? Who took the responsibility for vetting a
candidate who was born to an African father, a citizen of Kenya, and who
had little or no qualifications for the job... other than a
presidential-sized ego and the ability to read well from a teleprompter?
In all fairness, the same emphasis placed on McCain’s parentage by those
who studied the question of his eligibility should now be applied to
Obama, even at this late date... especially at this late date.
As a starting point we can begin with an assertion
made in an August 6, 2008 profile of Obama’s background and
qualifications in the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News. In that
profile, the authors called attention to Obama’s parentage by asserted
that Obama "Holds both American and Kenyan (since 1963) citizenship.”
When that assertion was challenged by Obama supporters, it was
thoroughly investigated by the authoritative and highly-respected
Internet watchdog, FactCheck.org, of the Annenberg Center for Public
Policy. Without delving into other charges surrounding Obama’s status as
a "natural born” citizen... his paternal grandmother’s insistence that
she was present at his birth in Kenya, his Indonesian citizenship, etc.,
etc... FactCheck analyzed the dual citizenship issue only from the
standpoint of what was known about Obama from the best possible source:
Obama himself.
According to Obama, he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961,
to an American mother, 17-year-old Stanley Ann Dunham, and a Kenyan
father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. As proof of their assertion that Obama
was also a citizen of Kenya, FactCheck relied on provisions of the
British Nationality Act of 1948, Sections 4 and 5.
Under Part II, Section 4 of the Act, Obama's father
became a British citizen by reason of the fact that he was born on the
soil of a British colony, Kenya. Section 4 reads as follows:
"Subject to the provisions of this section, every
person born within the United Kingdom and Colonies after the
commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and
Colonies by birth...”
Section 5(1) of the Act applies to Obama. It reads,
in part, as follows: "(1) Subject to the
provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this
Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if
his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time
of the birth...”
When Obama was born in 1961, either in Hawaii or at some other place, he
automatically became a British citizen "by descent” from his father. It
was thus that Obama was born with dual British-American citizenship.
However, Obama’s dual British-American citizenship was short lived.
Following Kenya’s independence from Great Britain on December 12, 1963,
Kenya’s newly-adopted Constitution went into effect. Chapter VI, Section
87[3] of that Constitution, relating to citizenship, provides as
follows:
"(1) Every persons who, having been born in Kenya,
is on 11th December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and
Colonies, or a British protected person, shall become a citizen of Kenya
on 12th December 1963. Provided that a person shall not
become a citizen of Kenya by virtue of this subsection if neither of his
parents was born in Kenya. (Obama’s father
was born in Kenya, as were both of his paternal grandparents.)
"(2) Every person who, having been born outside Kenya, is on 11th
December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, or a
British protected person, shall, if his father becomes, or would but for
his death have become a citizen of Kenya by virtue of subsection (1),
become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December, 1963.”
In other words, on December 12, 1963, just two years and four months
after he was born, Obama lost his dual US-British citizenship and
became, instead, a dual citizen of the United States and Kenya. However,
Kenyan dual citizenship was not without its limits. Chapter VI, Section
97 (Dual Citizenship) of the Kenyan Constitution provides as follows:
"(1) A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one
years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other
than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of
Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of
that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a
person who was born outside Kenya, made and registered such declaration
of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under
an Act of Parliament.”
Under this provision of the Kenyan Constitution, Obama’s status as a
citizen of Kenya would have automatically expired on his 21st
birthday, August 4, 1982. However, under subsection (7), cited above,
the Kenyan parliament provided a two year grace period in which dual
citizens could make their selection of nationality.
Since Obama clearly did not renounce his U.S. citizenship in the two
year grace period following his 21st birthday, his Kenyan
citizenship automatically expired on August 4, 1984, his 23rd
birthday. The Rocky Mountain News was incorrect in its original
assertion that Obama held Kenyan citizenship continuously since 1963 and
published a correction on September 3, 2009, acknowledging that Obama’s
lost his Kenyan citizenship on August 4, 1984.
This, of course, ignores whatever complications may have arisen from
Obama’s alleged adoption by his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, in
1967. If, in fact, Obama was adopted by his Indonesian stepfather, at
age six, he would then have become an Indonesian citizen and the
question of his eligibility would be even further complicated.
The question we are now faced with is this: Is it possible for an
American citizen who was born to parents of mixed nationality... one
American, one Kenyan... and who has held one or more dual citizenships,
to also be considered a "natural born” citizen, eligible to serve as
President of the United States? Is it not safe to assume that the
Founding Fathers placed a "natural born” qualification on candidates for
the office of president and vice president because of the inherent
difficulties posed by a president or a vice president with divided
loyalties?
And if Obama does not possess a degree of loyalty to his Luo tribe and
to his large extended family in Kenya, why did he campaign in Kenya in
2006 with his cousin, Raila Odinga, the Marxist candidate of the Orange
Democratic Movement (ODM), and why does an ODM campaign finance report
dated November 9, 2007 show a $66,000 contribution from an entity
described as "Friends of Senator BO?”
The Democratic Party failed us by nominating a man whose qualifications
were uncertain; the Democratic members of the Electoral College failed
us when they elected a man whom they had not properly vetted; and the
entire U.S. Congress... Democrats and Republicans alike... failed us
when they certified the ballots of the Electoral College without
questioning his eligibility. 2008 was a year of failure for the people
of America. Let’s all pray that we can survive it. |
