What is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States? | by John Greschak

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3 responses to “What is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States? | by John Greschak”

1. Bill Van Allen

   Monday, October 12, 2026

   an amicus submission could give Kerchner a concrete way to support access to the OSG records.

   My recommendation would be a focused brief explaining his research interest, the public value of the requested records, and how disclosure would assist informed examination of presidential eligibility. Its usefulness would depend on connecting those points to the FOIA issues before Judge Sannes.

   NDNY Local Rule 7.2 requires leave of court, with the proposed brief and proposed order attached. The brief is limited to 12 double-spaced pages. Ordinarily, the motion must be filed within seven days after the supported party’s principal brief; a later submission requires good cause. The relevant briefing and docket dates would therefore need checking before he files.

   He could support your pursuit of records while retaining his own views about constitutional interpretation and AI assistance.

   Reply
2. Bill Van Allen

   Monday, October 12, 2026

   Bill, Greschak offers a John Jay–centered interpretation worth studying, but his definition is an argument rather than established law. The Post & Email page would not load; I located his original essay, published December 2, 2008, and updated January 12, 2010. I cannot confirm whether tonight’s posting adds commentary.

   His proposed test requires three things:

   * Birth in the United States.
   * Both parents being U.S. citizens when the child was born.
   * U.S. citizenship maintained continuously from birth.

   He derives this from Jay’s concern about foreign influence, historical usage, and his interpretation of the individual words. He also proposes a constitutional amendment incorporating his definition.

   The strongest research contribution is his examination of the historical documents. He compares Jay’s manuscript and contemporary terminology, and acknowledges that the English Vattel wording “natural-born citizens” appears in the 1797 edition—after the Constitution was drafted. That chronology matters when arguing that the Framers borrowed that particular phrase from Vattel.

   The major legal obstacle is that the Congressional Research Service’s analysis reaches a different conclusion: the prevailing interpretation encompasses citizenship at birth, including U.S. birth subject to jurisdiction regardless of parental citizenship, and qualifying births abroad to citizen parents. CRS is persuasive analysis, not a binding judgment, but any two-citizen-parent argument must address its authorities directly.

   For your developing strategy, my recommendation is to use Greschak as a guide to primary-source research for the John Jay project. I would keep the Sharpe amicus focused on ballot access and voter participation; introducing this presidential-eligibility theory would require a concrete connection to the claims actually filed. His test also differs from your maternal-lineage proposal: it requires two citizen parents, without requiring a U.S.-born mother or grandmother.

   Reply
3. Charles Kerchner

   Monday, October 12, 2026

   A link to this TP&E article posting has been shared at TheFreeRepublic: One can read additional comments and discussion of this article there at this link: https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4398908/posts

   CDR Kerchner (Ret)
   http://www.ProtectOurLiberty.org

   Reply

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