Quotes of the day are intended to represent what is being said by people on both sides of the birther question. They do not necessarily represent the views of this web site.
The paranoia infecting a broad swath of the American right-wing can be comical at times — think about Orly Taitz and her fellow Birthers. But we laugh at our own peril, because what Richard Hofstadter famously characterized as “the paranoid style in American politics” poses a serious threat to our future: the right’s snowballing conspiracy theories could ultimately lead to disaster.
— Joshua Holland
— Alternet.org
Children born to aliens are aliens, not US citizens, and they belong with their parents who need to be deported.
— Silverbull8
— Comment at the Greeley Gazette
I am a natural born citizen of the United States, am at least thirty-five years of age, and have been a resident of the United States at least fourteen years.
— Barack Obama
— Sworn statement (2007)
To cite Minor v. Happersett as the definitive statement of the meaning of the phrase “natural born citizen” is to exhibit an unfortunate lack of understanding of the Supreme Court’s 1874 decision in that case.
— Associate Professor Joseph Hylton
— Marquette University Law School
… a natural born citizen means a citizen of the United States who became so at the moment of his birth. It not being necessary … to take out naturalization papers, it therefore follows that he is a natural born citizen. The law recognizes only the two classes, the natural born and the naturalized citizen.
— John H. Casey
— First Assistant District Attorney for Boston (1903)
I, personally, believe we would be far better served to understand the law, and construct a way to work within it to further our cause.
— Dean Haskins
— The Birther Summit
Georgia, no thanks to some judgment-impaired officials and certainly without the consent of the governed, has been slumming in the Orly Taitz nuttery neighborhood way too long. Please, for the sake of the state’s already battered image, let’s just quietly tiptoe out of this putrid political ghetto and back to the daylight side of town before we attract any more ridicule.
It is well settled that those born in the United States are considered natural born citizens.
— US District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr.
— Tisdale v. Obama
In other words, the birthers finally got a judge to listen to their “evidence,” and even with no opposing counsel in the courtroom, the judge concluded that their case was total and complete bunk.
– Jay Bookman
– The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Many Americans believe the “greatest voter fraud the world has ever seen” was George W. Bush’s phony 2000 victory in Florida, but we sucked it up and lived with the result.
Try growing up and doing likewise, Mr. Sore Loser.
— Randall Frey
— Nashua Telegraph
However, none of these challenges is going anywhere because the judges who rule on them know the law a lot better than the cranks who raise them.
— Kevin Davidson
Dear Bigots: You lose again. Signed, The 21st Century.
— Wil Wheaton @wilw
I would run for office. I feel like I’m the only person who has reason, common sense, and sanity.
— Victoria Jackson
Believe me, I understand the principle of flinging enough poo against the wall in the belief that, eventually, something will stick; and generally, I know that, in the right situation, that can be an effective approach.
— Dean Haskins
— The Birther Summit
Birthers don’t want Obama’s eligibility determined; they want him determined ineligible.
— Dr. Conspiracy
Who are natural-born citizens but those born within the Republic? Those born within the Republic, whether black or white, are citizens by birth — natural-born citizens. There is no such word as white in your Constitution. Citizenship, therefore, does not depend on complexion any more than it depends on the rights of election or of office.
— Rep. John Bingham
— Congressional debate (1862)
The alien father owing local allegiance, his child born on British soil was deemed to be born within that allegiance, and therefore a natural-born subject of the King. The same rule applied where the father had never been within the Kingdom; in that case the local allegiance of the mother was deemed sufficient.
— George D. Collins
— US Govt. Appellant Brief in US v Wong
