Kamala Harris citizenship conspiracy theories

This article is part of a series about Kamala Harris
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Before and after California Senator Kamala Harris was announced as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's running mate in the 2020 United States presidential election, she became the subject of unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories regarding her eligibility to serve as president or vice president.

Background

Harris was born at the Oakland Medical Center in Oakland, California, to an Indian mother and Jamaican father. Harris was raised in Berkeley, California, until relocating to Montreal, Canada at the age of 12 when her mother took a research position at the Jewish General Hospital. After graduating from high school in Montreal, Harris returned to the United States to attend Howard University.

False claims

The claim that Harris is not a natural-born citizen was made by far-right internet troll and conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl on January 22, 2019, a day after she announced her presidential campaign. Later that day, his tweet was labeled false by PolitiFact. Numerous fact-check articles evaluated the claim as false and stated that Harris is not only a US citizen by birth, but also a natural-born citizen as required by the Constitution in order for her to be President or Vice-President.

Following her selection as Joe Biden's running mate on August 11, 2020, John C. Eastman, an attorney and professor of law at the Chapman University School of Law, wrote an opinion piece published in Newsweek titled "Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility". In the piece, Eastman disputed the current common interpretation of birthright citizenship under the United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision of the Supreme Court of 1898 as encompassing virtually everyone born in the U.S. He said that "under the 14th Amendment as originally understood", if Harris's parents were not citizens or permanent residents of the United States at the time of her birth, she would not be considered a citizen of the United States, and thus would be ineligible to serve as the Vice President. He noted that in the Wong Kim Ark case, the parents were permanent residents of the United States, and he said the Supreme Court had not ruled directly on whether children of foreign persons who are only temporary visitors (e.g., as student visa holders) also have birthright citizenship. Eastman provided examples of children of temporary workers who were born in the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s who had been forced to go to the country of their parents rather than being treated as citizens of the United States. In response to backlash to the article, Newsweek added an editor's note and published an opposing argument, authored by Eugene Volokh, a legal scholar at the UCLA School of Law.

Harris was born in California, and according to the Citizenship Clause, "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." In Volokh's opinion, the Wong Kim Ark ruling held that the temporary or permanent residency status of the parents is irrelevant to whether children born in the United States are considered natural-born U.S. citizens as defined by the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Volokh pointed out that Blackstone's Commentaries, the standard reference on law in the colonial era, describes natural-born as follows: "The children of aliens, born here in England, are, generally speaking, natural-born subjects, and entitled to all the privileges of such."

On August 14, 2020, Newsweek replaced the original editor's note with a formal apology, writing "This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize. We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized. The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen."

President Donald Trump said, "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. I have no idea if that's right. I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president." Jenna Ellis, Senior Legal Advisor to the Trump 2020 Campaign, later reiterated the idea, saying, "it's an open question and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible." CNN's Maeve Rolston called it an attempt to stir controversy. Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe said he "can't believe people are making this idiotic comment" and "there is no question about her eligibility to run." NPR's Tamara Keith also pointed out that Trump's mother immigrated to the United States.

See also

• Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories
• Natural-born-citizen clause
• Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

References

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