BY FLORIDA BILL
Democrats are always raving and ranting about their dedication to the rule of law, but if you raise that principle at the wrong time, well, you are racist and a bigot and a xenophobe.
That's what happened a while back when Dr. John Eastman, a scholarly lawyer and former dean of the Chapman University Fowler school of law in southern California, opined in an article published in Newsweek that Kamala Harris could have a problem if her eligibility to be a Vice President was challenged.
Democrat loyalists promptly called Eastman a racist, harboring ill feelings for Harris who was elected as attorney general in California in 2010 and that Eastman had been an unsuccessful candidate in the race. His detractors claimed that he had turned his vengeful gun on this "woman of color" selected by Joe Biden as his running mate in next November's election.
Nothing personal, said Eastman, only the law, and it is what it is Newsweek publishers and editors hastened to defend its racial integrity explaining that Dr. Eastman was simply presenting a "minority legal argument," on a very old legal controversy. There was no intention on the part of Eastman or the editors to rekindle "birther" allegations which for many years had haunted President Obama, magazine editors explained.
Eastman, a Republican, said that "it is ironic that he has received so much criticism for publishing the article on a subject I've been writing about for 20 years."
Ten years ago, Eastman was a candidate in the Republican primary in California for attorney general and he lost, and another lawyer became the Republican candidate. The Democratic candidate was Kamala Harris and she went on to win the election, serving in that office until she became a U.S. Senator in 2017. He said that he had no ill will for Harris, and quipped that if he would be angry at anyone, it would be the attorney who bested him in the Republican primary.
So what about Eastman's essay and the Obama birther controversy?
After the biracial Barack Obama became a candidate for President, critics complained that he had been born in Kenya, in Eastern Africa and was not an American citizen, and consequently, lacked the constitutional right to hold the office of President. Pew researchers reported that 20 per cent of the country's 336 million residents believed that Obama was born in Kenya. Donald Trump, then a real estate billionaire, was a strong voice fueling opposition to Obama.
The controversy went on for several years, but in 2011 Obama, at long last, produced his birth certificate attesting to the fact that he had been born in Hawaii. His mother was a teen age American citizen and his father was an economist from Kenya. The dispute was finally put to rest with Trump's public declaration in 2016 that "President Obama was born in the United States....Period."
Eastman's article in Newsweek raised a different point. Harris' birthright citizenship was in accord with the 14th amendment, but might conflict with the mandate in Article II which sets forth that only a "natural born citizen" can serve as President or Vice President.
Harris was born in Oakland, California in October, 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a native of India, was a doctoral student attending the University of Berkeley. Her father, Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican, was also a graduate student at the university. Shyamala and Donald were wed but later divorced and Kamala was raised by her single mother. who died in 2009. Kamala's dad was a Stanford university professor of economics for many years, and is now retired.
The 14th Amendment which allows for birthright citizenship is as follows:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Neither of Kamala's parents were American citizens. Most likely, said Eastman, Shymala Gopalan and Donald Harris were in United States via a green card allowing them to attend the university. Both were citizens of other countries.
Birth on American soil gave citizenship to Kamala Harris, but the legal controversy arose, said Dr. Eastman, as to whether she met the requirements of being a "natural born citizen" as is the mandate in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution.
Kamala's parents were undocumented visitors to America which allowed them to attend Berkeley university. Had the parents been non-citizens, but permanent residents, they would have been "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," and that would have make Kamala a "natural born citizen." and her eligibility to serve as vice president would be consistent with requirements for holding the high offices as set forth in the Constitution.
Harris' questionable eligibility to fill the office of Vice President is a theory supported by a minority of opinions.
Eastman's opinion piece is just that and others in the majority, will argue that the 14th amendment grants citizenship to anyone and everyone born on American soil, and the right to be President or Vice President comes with that citizenship.
At a news conference, Trump was asked about the Newsweek article by Dr. Eastman, and he said that he knew nothing about it, but that the author was a highly regarded attorney.
As a candidate in 2016, President Trump was critical of the interpretation of the 14th Amendment which allows for so-called "anchor" babies. Sen. Lindsey Graham has said also that the USA is a magnet for pregnant women to get onto American soil and have a baby, whereby the infant immediately becomes an American citizen entitled to all of the largess and benefits afforded citizens. Most often with "anchor babies" such as Kamala Harris, the mother and father, or the single mother, remain in the USA with their citizen child, and the family receives significant health and living benefits.
A study in 2018 found that 297,000 babies were born that year to undocumented mothers. Costs for the infants and extended families amounted to billions of dollars. As a candidate in 2016, Trump said that he would review birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment in an effort to make such births subject to reasonable conditions.
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment