{"id":1658,"date":"2012-05-19T03:58:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T09:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1658"},"modified":"2012-05-21T03:07:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T09:07:34","slug":"on-presidential-succession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1658","title":{"rendered":"On Presidential Succession"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article II. Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, states that, \u201cNo Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

From the outset of Barack Obama\u2019s quest for the presidency, liberals, Democrats, those in the mainstream media, and even a few conservatives and Republicans, have insisted that nowhere in the Constitution is the term \u201cnatural born Citizen\u201d defined.\u00a0 But that simply is not true.\u00a0 The answer to the question is implicit in the phrase, \u201c\u2026 or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Why did the Framers include those qualifying words?\u00a0 They could have left those words out and the term \u201cnatural born Citizen\u201d would have been construed as something entirely different from what they intended.\u00a0 Instead, they specified that, in order to serve as President of the United States, one had to be EITHER a \u201cnatural born Citizen,\u201d<\/em> OR, a \u201ccitizen\u201d <\/em>of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the Framers understood and intended that a \u201cnatural born\u201d citizen is something more than a mere \u201ccitizen.\u201d\u00a0 Those words were included in Article II, Section 1 because, on the day the Constitution was ratified, June 21, 1788, there were no \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens who were also 35 years of age and who had resided in the United States for at least 14 years.<\/p>\n

The oldest \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens living in the United States on the day that the Constitution was ratified\u2026 those born to U.S. citizen parents after<\/em> the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776\u2026 \u00a0were only 11 years, 11 months, and 17 days old, not nearly old enough to serve as President of the United States.<\/p>\n

Of course, there were many male \u201ccitizens\u201d who met the age and residency requirements:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Individuals who, because they were born in one of the original 13 colonies (states) on or before June 21, 1753, making them at least 35 years of age on the day the Constitution was ratified, or,<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Those born in Europe, or elsewhere, prior to June 21, 1753 and who became citizens at some point prior to the ratification of the Constitution on June 21, 1788.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      These were individuals who were eligible to serve as president prior to July 4, 1811 because they were \u201ccitizens\u201d at least 35 years of age with the necessary residency requirements.\u00a0 After that date, only \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens were eligible to serve as President of the United States.<\/p>\n

      Since the new nation needed a pool of individuals from which to draw candidates for the presidency until such time as the first \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens reached the age of 35, the Framers included a \u201cgrandfather\u201d clause which made it possible for our earliest presidents to serve without meeting the \u201cnatural born\u201d standard. \u00a0\u00a0For example, presidents Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, and Jackson were all \u201ccitizens,\u201d but not \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens because they were born prior to July 4, 1776.\u00a0 All were \u201cgrandfathered\u201d and made eligible under the phrase, \u201cor a Citizen<\/em> of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/em>Martin Van Buren, born to U.S. citizen parents on December 5, 1782, became our first \u201cnatural born\u201d U.S. president.<\/p>\n

      While all \u201cnatural born\u201d citizens are \u201ccitizens\u201d of the United States, the reverse is not true.\u00a0 To be a mere \u201ccitizen\u201d or a \u201cnative born\u201d citizen does not mean that one is also \u201cnatural born\u201d\u2026 which brings us to the current case of Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).<\/p>\n

      Since the onset of efforts by mainstream media talking heads, pundits, uninformed conservatives, \u00a0and inside-the-beltway hangers-on to promote Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the 2012 GOP vice presidential nomination, little has been said or written about Rubio\u2019s lack of status as a \u201cnatural born\u201d US citizen.<\/p>\n

      The Constitution tells us that \u201cNo person except a<\/em> natural born Citizen<\/em>\u2026 shall be eligible to the Office of President,\u201d<\/em> and short of a Constitutional amendment, that restriction is and shall remain the law of the land; there can be no exceptions.\u00a0 Inasmuch as Rubio\u2019s parents were both citizens of Cuba and did not become US citizens until 4 years after he was born, Rubio does not meet the basic qualification necessary to serve as president or vice president of the United States.<\/p>\n

      However, in their tireless effort to find a loophole big enough for Senator Rubio to slip through, some have correctly pointed out that Article II, Section 1 makes no mention of qualifications for the vice presidency.\u00a0 Nowhere does it say that \u201cNo Person except a natural born Citizen\u2026 shall be eligible to the Office of President or Vice President.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0Some apparently take this to mean that candidates for the vice presidency need not meet the \u201cnatural born\u201d standard.<\/p>\n

      While it is easy to see how some might arrive at that tortured conclusion, any reasonable man might question what could possibly cause the members of the Electoral College to elect a man or a woman to the vice presidency if\u2026 in the event the president was deceased or incapacitated\u2026 the vice president was unqualified to assume the reins of power.<\/p>\n

      The 25th<\/sup> Amendment to the US Constitution deals with presidential succession.\u00a0 Section 1 of the Amendment provides that, \u201c<\/em>In case of the removal of the President<\/a> from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President<\/a> shall become President.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Section 3 of the Amendment provides that, \u201cWhenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate<\/a> and the Speaker of the House of Representatives<\/a> his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      In the unlikely event that a sitting vice president would be unqualified to assume the powers of the presidency, one must assume that the powers and duties of the president would then fall to the next in line to the presidency, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

      However, while the Constitution does not clearly specify that the vice president must meet the same qualifications as the president, it is clear from a reading of the Federalist Papers that that is precisely what the Founders intended.\u00a0 Federalist Paper No. 68, by Alexander Hamilton, tells us, \u201c… The other consideration is that, as the Vice President may occasionally become a substitute for the President, in the extreme executive magistracy, all the reasons which recommend the mode of election prescribed for the one apply with great if not with equal force to the manner of appointing the other…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      Because 8 of our 44 presidents (nearly 1 in 5) have either died in office or have been assassinated (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Warren \u00a0G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy), vice presidential succession has not been as rare as might be expected.\u00a0 So while it is clear that some may wish to nominate a candidate for vice president who may possess political strengths sufficient to bolster a national ticket (e.g. Senator Marco Rubio)\u2026 regardless of that candidate\u2019s lack of qualification to serve as president\u2026 that is not what the Founders had in mind when they drafted Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

      While a great many activists on the political left are convinced that the US Constitution is a \u201cliving\u201d document, meaning only what they would like it to mean on any given day.\u00a0 And while a great many others simply prefer to ignore constitutional principles until such time as they find their own ox being gored, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the Constitution is what it is and it means exactly what it says\u2026. nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n

      Senator Marco Rubio is not<\/em> a \u201cnatural born\u201d citizen and he cannot stand for the 2012 Republican vice presidential nomination.\u00a0 If delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention choose to ignore Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, for no better reason than that the Democrats have done so successfully for the past three and one-half years, then they will have established a precedent that will legitimize the Obama presidency for all time.\u00a0 That, we cannot allow.<\/p>\n

      If Senator Rubio were an honorable man he would do the honorable thing.\u00a0 He would publicly announce that his name must be withdrawn from consideration for the 2012 vice presidential nomination because he is not a \u201cnatural born\u201d citizen and does not meet the Article II, Section 1 requirements for the office of president or vice president.<\/p>\n

      If he fails to do so, then we will know that Senator Rubio is not the honorable man we thought him to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Article II. Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, states that, \u201cNo Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}