Laity Responds to Election Board’s Refusal to Correct Presidential Eligibility Terminology

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 12, 2024) — On Saturday, The Post & Email reported the response finally provided, after 15 years, to New York State resident and complainant Robert C. Laity from the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) regarding its use of the term “Born a Citizen” for a presidential eligibility criterion instead of the actual term in Article II, Section 1, clause t of the Constitution of “natural born Citizen.”

Laity began filing complaints to the NYSBOE in 2009 following the election of Barack Hussein Obama, whose eligibility was doubted by many, compounded by major media claims he was born outside the country. Over the ensuing decade and a half, neither Laity nor others who contacted the Board on the issue received a response.

In early January, Laity directed a fresh complaint to the Board, sending copies to the New York State Division of Election Law Enforcement and New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office.

In a complaint filed in December, Laity copied U.S. House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY21).

The NYSBOE’s response to Laity verifies that it inaccurately relates the “natural born” criterion on its website as charged. Its justification, Chief Enforcement Officer Michael L. Johnson wrote, is the presence of a disclaimer on the agency’s webpage titled “Running for Office,” subsection “Overview,” which states, “The information contained here is intended to provide general guidance for those who are preparing to circulate petitions, and is not to be used as a substitute for consulting the Election Law for specific petition requirements.”

Johnson then laid out his own interpretation of the meaning of “natural born Citizen,” relying on a 2015 article by two former solicitors general published days before Sen. Ted Cruz, born in Canada to a non-U.S.-citizen father and reported U.S.-citizen mother, declared his 2016 presidential candidacy. 

In that regard, the article states:

While the field of candidates for the next presidential election is still taking shape, at least one potential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, was born in a Canadian hospital to a U.S. citizen mother.¹⁵ Despite the happenstance of a birth across the border, there is no question that Senator Cruz has been a citizen from birth and is thus a “natural born Citizen” within the meaning of the Constitution. Indeed, because his father had also been resident in the United States, Senator Cruz would have been a “natural born Citizen” even under the Naturalization Act of 1790.

The authors, Neal Katyal and Paul Clement, did not reveal that the 1790 Naturalization Act, notably its reference to “natural born Citizen,” was fully repealed five years later.

Johnson went on to invoke a 2012 civil case naming the Board and numerous elected officials in the commission of “fraud” regarding the bona fides of Obama. As to presidential electors’ votes, the judge in the case opined, “federal courts and state courts have no role.”

Johnson concluded his letter with, “…based on the foregoing, this matter is closed with no further enforcement action.”

On Saturday Laity replied to Johnson in a lengthy missive of his own. “New York State continues to misrepresent the U.S. Constitutional criteria that a President and VP MUST meet in order to hold said respective offices,” he wrote. “On that particular issue the State most assuredly does have a ‘role’.”

Michael L. Johnson
Chief Enforcement Counsel
New York State Board of Elections
Division of Election Law Enforcement        February 10, 2024
40 North Pearl Street, Ste. 10-D
Albany, New York 12207

Re: Complaint of Robert C. Laity
       Against NY Board of Elections;
       Determination #E2024-002                                  

Dear Mr. Johnson,

This letter is in Response to your recent Determination in the matter of the complaint [of Robert C. Laity] Against New York Board of Elections (Determination E2024-002).

In your determination you admitted that “a review of the NYBOE website found that [the NYBOE] does state that the requirement to hold the office of President of the United States as ‘born a citizen’, on both the webpage entitled ‘Running for Office” and a pdf guidebook found on that page”.   

You further attempt to discount these overt misrepresentations as somehow not having need to be corrected based on a disclosure in a guidebook “Running for Elected Office in New York State” that “information posted…is not used as a substitute for…specific Petition requirements”.

I am not talking about “petition requirements”. I am referring to United States Constitutional “requirements” which New York State has misrepresented for at least the past fifteen (15) years.

I apprised the Board of its inaccurate and unlawful actions to misrepresent Article II US Constitutional criteria for holding the Office of President of the United States in 2009. Also see the 12^th Amendment’s prohibition against Vice-Presidents who do not meet Article II criteria from holding said office. You are not correct in your assertions that “Courts and other literature point to the meaning of natural born citizen, as to include those born outside of the U.S., so long as at least one parent is a U.S. Citizen”.  The Harvard Law Review Forum article of Katyal and Clement, which you cited, is fraught with erroneous assertions. A major one is that a person born overseas to a US citizen is an NBC. That is incorrect. Katyal and Clement erroneously cited the Nationality Act of 1790.

A provision in that Act provided for persons born overseas to US Parents to be “considered” as NBCs and not actual NBCs.

Clement and Katyal conspicuously admitted legal facts in order to support their claims. That particular provision in the NA of 1790 was REPEALED  five years later in the Nationality Act of 1795.

Your citing of Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1874) is actually in conflict with your apparent attempt to justify the NYBOE’s actions of longstanding duration of misrepresenting the actual criteria for holding office of the President of the United States, being a “Natural Born Citizen” and substituting in its stead the term “born a citizen”.

The court in Minor supports my stance and not yours.  That case identified a “Natural Born Citizen” as “One born in the United States to parents who are [both] U.S. Citizens themselves”.

In any event, further discussion of what an NBC is, is not necessary here. That’s for the Courts to iron out. What is a fact is that New York State continues to misrepresent the criteria for holding office as President and VP of the U.S.

You go on to cite NYS Election Law Sec. 6-102. For what purpose?

While it is true that “Party nominations of a candidate for the office of elector of President and Vice-President of the United States…shall be made by the Party committee”, that does not detract from my claim that the Constitutional criteria for holding office as President and VP are indeed being misrepresented by the NYBOE.  A President and VP must be “Natural Born Citizen[s]” of the United States and not just merely “born a citizen”.  Your reference to previous lawsuits in NY which sought to disqualify Barack Obama from office based on the fact that he is not a “Natural Born Citizen” is immaterial, irrelevant and not germane to the instant complaint:

New York State continues to misrepresent the U.S. Constitutional criteria that a President and VP MUST meet in order to hold said respective offices.

On that particular issue the State most assuredly does have a “role”.

That is to Cease and Desist misrepresenting the constitutional criteria for holding office as the President of the United States and for those criteria for holding office as Vice-President of the United States.

When I filed the instant complaint I simultaneously filed it with the NY State Attorney General Letitia James (AGNY File # 24-005501).

A copy of this letter is being sent to her. Your action to “close” this matter “with no further enforcement action” is nonfeasant and illustrates a lack of interest in upholding election integrity as well as complicity with NYBOE’s malfeasance in continuing to misquote the U.S. Constitution.

Robert C. Laity, Complainant

CC: Letitia James, A.G.N.Y.