‘Citizen at Birth’ Term vs ‘natural born Citizen’ Term: Grammatical and Logical Analysis

by CDR Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. (Ret), blogging at cdrkerchner, ©2024

(Aug. 9, 2024) — First, let us put on our thinking hat and do some simple grammatical analysis of the two terms ‘Citizen at Birth’ (“CAB”) and ‘natural born Citizen’ (“nbC”).

The first term, “CAB”, tells the reader simply WHEN the person became a Citizen, i.e., at birth.

The second term, “nbC”, tells the reader two things, i.e., WHEN the person became a Citizen, i.e., when born, and also HOW they became a Citizen, i.e., by what type of law the person became a Citizen –- Man-made laws, acts, treaties, amendments, Positive Law(s), or the Law(s) of Nature, Natural Law. The ‘natural born Citizen’ obtains their citizenship by the clear-cut natural law circumstances of their birth, with the birth being in the country and being born to two U.S. Citizen (born or naturalized Citizen) parents, via the Laws of Nature, Natural Law. No man-made law or act is needed to grant them their U.S. citizenship.

Regarding the U.S. constitutional ‘natural born Citizen’ (“nbC”) term, the person gained their sole allegiance to the USA and citizenship via the Laws of Nature aka Natural Law, not man-made laws aka Positive Law.

So it is important to note, in the grammatical analysis of a term or sentence, adjectives mean something. The “born” adjective in the ‘natural born Citizen’ term tells us when the person became a Citizen, that is at the time they were born. And the “natural” adjective in the ‘natural born Citizen” term denotes a special KIND of Citizen when born, i.e., a Citizen created by Natural Law, not Positive Man-Made Law. Things described as “natural” are created by nature, not man.

In virtually all countries, those who are a ‘natural born Citizen’ of that country are the largest subset of the Citizens at Birth set, and/or all Citizens. Those who are a ‘natural born Citizen” of a country are the largest KIND of Citizen of the country. They also for the most part define the culture of the country.

By Natural Law, a ‘natural born Citizen‘ is defined as a person born in the country to parents who were both Citizens (born or naturalized Citizens of the country) when their child was born in the country. Natural born Citizens are naturally at birth a Citizen of only that country and no other. In the case of the USA, they are born with unity of citizenship and sole allegiance to the USA at birth with no dual-Citizenship, foreign allegiance, or foreign influence on them via their birth circumstances.

For more information about Natural Law and how it applies to the Laws of Nations and the enlightened governance of a Nation, which was used as mentioned by Benjamin Franklin to help write the founding documents, and was used to help in the early common law and governmental decision making in the USA by persons like John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and President George Washington, see Emer de Vattel’s preeminent legal treatise “The Law of Nations or Principles of Natural Law” (1758/1797): http://lonang.com/library/reference/vattel-law-of-nations/vatt-119/ … and … https://cdrkerchner.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/my-translation-of-a-key-sentence-in-emer-de-vattels-1758-treatise-on-natural-law-in-section-212-des-citoyens-et-naturels/ … and … http://puzo1.blogspot.com/2009/04/article-ii-natural-born-citizen-means.html

By contrast a person granted “Citizen at Birth” status of the USA by man-made Positive Laws of the USA such as Title 8 Section 1401 could also be a Citizen of another country at birth, a dual-Citizen, or even a tri-Citizen, via inherited foreign citizenship and innate foreign claims and influence on them from one foreign national parent, or as the case may be, both of their foreign national parents, especially via a father who is a non-U.S. Citizen foreign national when his child is born. This creates a child born with divided loyalties from birth.

Second, for some basic logic and logical analysis of the “CAB” and “nbC” terms using set and subsets, see this Euler Diagram logic. Euler Diagram analysis is used to test the truth or fallacy of an argument. In this case the fallacy of the argument that the terms ‘natural born Citizen’ and ‘Citizen at Birth” are logically identically equal is clearly disproved. The ‘natural born Citizen’ kind of Citizen is the largest subset of Citizens at Birth.  The terms are NOT identically equal. Again, adjectives mean something. Graphically you can see in the Euler Diagram that a person can become a ‘Citizen at Birth’ via man-made laws such as Title 8 Section 1401 or claim it via the misuse of the 14th Amendment, but is NOT a ‘natural born Citizen’ via Natural Law. See more at this link: http://www.kerchner.com/naturalborncitizen/cfk/Euler-Logic-Diagram-Shows-Logical-Relationship-of-natural-born-Citizen-Set-and-SuperSets.pdf

For more about the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How the ‘natural born Citizen’ term got into the presidential eligibility clause of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of our U.S. Constitution see: http://www.kerchner.com/protectourliberty/naturalborncitizen/TheWhoWhatWhenWhereWhyandHowofNBC-WhitePaper.pdf

Also, read this excellent article by Joseph DeMaio to learn more about how the far-left uni-party politicos and their allies in academia, with the help of an enabling main-stream media, have deceived the electorate via manipulated language by commission and omission in their pronouncements regarding the ‘natural born Citizen’ term to change the national public perception of what the national security term ‘natural born Citizen’ in the presidential eligibility clause of our U.S. Constitution truly meant in its original intent, meaning, understand, and purpose by the founders and framers when this crucial national security term was inserted into Article II of our U.S. Constitution: http://www.thepostemail.com/2024/08/07/the-natural-born-citizen-conundrum/

CDR Charles Kerchner, P.E. (Retired)
Author: Natural Born Citizen
http://www.kerchner.com/books/naturalborncitizen.htm
https://cdrkerchner.wordpress.com
https://www.scribd.com/user/52640192/protectourliberty/lists
https://www.protectourliberty.org