by Sharon Rondeau
(Dec. 22, 2024) — On Saturday evening The Post & Email published an article by legal scholar Joseph DeMaio exposing misrepresentation by omission, later alteration and the disappearance of a Congressional Research Services (CRS) report on the meaning of the Article II, Section 1, clause 5 term of art, “natural born Citizen.”
The essay brought to light that in two CRS publications, an April 3, 2009 “memo” and a November 14, 2011 “Report,” legislative attorney Jack Maskell used ellipses to eliminate wording from U.S. Supreme Court opinions which would have materially changed readers’ understanding of the court’s intent relative to the question of who is and is not eligible to the presidency under Article II.
The Congressional Research Service describes itself as:
a federal legislative branch agency located within the Library of Congress, serves as shared staff exclusively to congressional committees and Members of Congress. CRS experts assist at every stage of the legislative process — from the early considerations that precede bill drafting, through committee hearings and floor debate, to the oversight of enacted laws and various agency activities.
DeMaio further detailed that Maskell’s November 14, 2011 Report, updated January 11, 2016, “erased and ‘undid’ its prior ellipsis, making it appear as if ‘nothing had happened.’” Further, he revealed, its original text was substantially altered, then removed from the Congressional Research Service website.
The “illusion” Maskell created by means of the ellipses, DeMaio wrote, helped to further Maskell’s attempt to convince the reader “that parental citizenship was purportedly of no concern to the Founders” despite ample evidence to the contrary.
“Oddly enough, that illusion would also support the claimed eligibility of one Barack Hussein Obama, II, regardless of the authenticity of his Hawai’ian birth certificate,” DeMaio’s essay continues. “Thus altered, the CRS 2009 memo and the 2011 Report could more easily bamboozle the 535 members of Congress, 9 Justices of the Supreme Court and millions of voters that Obama was ‘eligible’ to the presidency regardless of his birth certificate bona fides…“
“The details of this CRS linguistic sleight of hand (and computer keyboard taps) have been discussed frequently over the years at The P&E, for example, here and here,” DeMaio added. “Whether the ellipsis alterations and their substantive impact were intentional remains to be confirmed…, but a number of indicia point that way.”
Over more than 14 years, DeMaio has extensively researched the likely heavy influence of Swiss jurist and philosopher Emmerich de Vattel’s 1758 treatise, The Law of Nations, on the Founders, theorizing it led them to include “natural born Citizen” as one of three criteria reserved for the president and commander-in-chief alone.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas referred to Vattel as “the founding era’s foremost expert on the law of nations” and quoted from the treatise in his 2019 majority opinion in Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt.
The virtual erasure of the 2016 revision CRS report from the internet, which arguably underwent considerably more alterations than the “14%” reported on one of the two websites DeMaio found it remains available, led to a firestorm of discussion Saturday night and letter-writing campaign suggested by CDR Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. (Ret) to members of the high court “and/or all members of the new Congress being sworn in this January of 2025.”
For ease of printing, Kerchner uploaded DeMaio’s essay in PDF format to three websites: his own, Calaméo and Scribd.com.
A Word version is here:
A downloadable PDF is here:
U.S. Representatives and Senators’ contact information can be found here; for information on contacting the Supreme Court and the Justices, see here.
The 14th Amendment’s Section 1 qualifying clause ‘…,and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,..’ should not require a Scalia-level of explanation as was offered in the Heller case’s decision to counter the dopey dissenters. The clause does not refer to a prospective subjection but an already existing one. What could the tie be? The parents, or at least the father.
This clause, like much of the textual Constitution, is anathema to the Left. There is nothing about it to discuss. The vast majority of food recipes are harder to navigate than this clause.
I will not forget the day I received a large brown envelope from Blanche Lincoln, who was at that time one of my Arkansas members of Congress. I sent copies of the CRS memo to Charles Kerchner and Mario Apuzzo, and to Sharon at PostEmail., I concluded this document was requested by Pelosi as something to help members of Congress get their lies straight when they lied to their constituents, and told their constituents Obama was eligible. I believe the CRS knew there was no choice for them, after Obama was already sworn-in but to find him eligible. Too late for anything else for the CRS.The CRS works for Congress and Pelosi gets what Pelosi wants………Or at least she did back then, …….
Sharon, I have followed and once in awhile commented here on P&E on the nbC issue since it first became public. Little did I realize the extent of the involvement of the CRS in Congress’ legislative process. I have another term for the CRS and it starts with Can’t Remember..) From what you published here I have many questions.
[a federal legislative branch agency located within the Library of Congress, serves as shared staff exclusively to congressional committees and Members of Congress. CRS experts assist at every stage of the legislative process — from the early considerations that precede bill drafting, through committee hearings and floor debate, to the oversight of enacted laws and various agency activities.]
As the CRS is involved in all aspects of the legislation process can we assume the worst that the volume of items and what part of the legislation originate with them? I am really concerned with the level of assistance that is provided.
I want to say thank you for continuing the P&E, your writings and the superb contributors like, Mario Apuzzo, Joseph DeMaio, CDR Kerchner to name a few. I have gained a real education in spite of the frustration.