Cant you be president if your born in another country as long as your a u.s. citizen?

Question

Ok say someones parents were on vacation in Germany and they are U.S. Citizens and they had a child born there the baby is still a U.S. citizen right?

You have to be a "natural born citizen"

My teacher says yes...brother's says no so were trying too see which is right.

Answer 1

No, you must be born in the United States. If you are born on a military base on foreign soil that still counts as the U.S.

Answer 2

A child born to 2 us parents is a natural born citizen regardless of where they pop out.

Answer 3

where was the baby born if it was in a US embassy than it would be a citizen  

Answer 4

The Constitution is specific on this:

You must be a natural born citizen which means born on US soil or US territory such as an embassy or military installation.

The child, in your scenario, would be a US citizen and, perhaps, also a citizen of his country of birth, but barring the conditions given above, he is not elligible to be president.

Your teacher is wrong.

edit to mcadaddy:  The President is paid $400,000 annually.

Answer 5

The child's birth would have to be registered with the U.S. Consulate or Embassy.  If not the child would be a citizen of that country.

Answer 6

YES. If your parents are American, then the child is a American. The child at age 18 can decide which country he/she wants to be a citizen of. I was born in Germany and choose duel citizenship. If the family are not military or working for the government, you are NOT a natural born citizen. Why would anyone want to be President? The job only pays $160,000 per year and everyone hate you. Even your wife/husband, children and and bog.

Answer 7

Brothers are wrong...listen to your teachers...

McCain was actually born in the Panama Canal Zone not in the US...see inserts below from a New York Time's article...

"The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

Experts who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of Mr. McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.

Some favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.

“They ought to have the same rights,” said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. “There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what ‘natural-born citizen’ means.”

Mr. McCain’s situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare Mr. McCain goes more to the interpretation of “natural born” when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.

Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.” But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the “natural-born” phrase."

The point is this..."natural born citizen" is only mentioned once in the Constitution and is not really clearly defined.  In addition to McCain being born in the Panama Canal, there are now rumors that Obama was born in Kenya and not in Hawaii (not to mention that his father was born in another country). I believe it's original intent was so that someone from England would not come over and become President and thus convert us back to an English colony.  The fact that both of these candidates have been certified (or will next week at the Republican convention) by their parties proves that they both pass the bill as "natural born citizens."  

Hope this helps...

Answer 8

Your brothers are right.

Even while on vacation if your parents gave birth to you in say Germany, than you would be a German citizen But since both your parents are American and on vacation you would receive citizenship and wind up with a duel citizenship, both German and American however you would be more German.

In order to run for U.S. president you would have to be Born within the United States or a Territory of the United States and have lived within the United States of America for at least 25 years straight yo run for office.

Sorry being born in another sovereign nation does not qualify as U.S.A. or U.S. Territory and such would disqualify you from running for president as is in our Constitution, however you could still run for other local offices including Governorship.

Answer 9

In the case that you are discussing that child would be a citizen under the current law. Wether he is "natural born" citizen and can run for president would have to be judged by the court. I actually think the court would rule for the elgibility, but there is no legal basis.

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Only the president and the vice president are required to be "natural born citizens".  You can be a "naturalized citizen" and serve on the cabinet, but you would just be skipped over if the presidency ever came to your position. To the best of my knowledge their has only been one case where there was any doubt about the meaning of the term. John McCain was ruled as "natural born" even though he was born in the Canal Zone in Panama.

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Because the requirement of being "natural born" has such limited applicability, it has never been exhaustively defined. It is clear that a "naturalized citizen" is not "natural born".  If there was a requirement that members of the house of representatives be "natural born" there would be a larger body of court rulings. Out of the roughly 12000 people who have served in the House, there would have been several court cases.

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It is not really that unusual to have items in the constitution that have vague meanings. For example, no one is positive if a man can be elected to president twice and then run as vice president. Al Franken said he would be glad to run as President with Bill clinton as VP. His platform would be the single promise that he will resign if elected.

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On a more serious note, there is always the question about the children born on US soil to illegal immigrants.  The Citizenship Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states that:

    "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

   The courts have ruled that children born to embassy personnel are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the US, so their children are not automatically US citizens.

   Many people personally believe that illegal immigrants are "not subject to the jurisdiction" of the US, so their children should not be granted citizenship automatically, just because they are born on US soil. However, the supreme court has chosen not to make a formal ruling on the interpretation of this statment. As a result, about 3 million children have been born where both parents are illegal, and they are all citizens.

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A few years ago a Taliban soldier was being detained in Guantanamo Bay. It turned out that he had actually been born in the US to illegal aliens, and had left the country as an infant. He asked to not to be treated as a POW, but as a citizen of the US. Many people felt that this would have been a good case for the supreme court to make a ruling on the exact interpretation of that phrase. The supreme court declined to make a ruling.