barack obama nationality president

Can the President be born British in addition to an American citizen?

When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan citizen, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.’s children — yup — at birth, Obama was a Kenyan citizen and British subject
“Obama was born in Hawaii”

The US is a sovereign nation and says that anyone born on US soil, regardless of parentage, is a natural born citizen. (Born to US citizens abroad is a separate topic.) The US doesn’t care what other countries may claim. North Korea could decree that every child born in the US is also a citizen of North Korea and no one could be president. Or Mexico, which says that all those anchor babies are dual citizens. In order to be a kenyan citizen, Obama would have had to actually DO something about it. He was born with the potential to be a British or kenyan citizen.

“Dual nationality . . . is the unavoidable consequence of the conflicting laws of different countries. One who becomes a citizen of this country by reason of birth retains it, even though by the law of another country he is also a citizen of it.” KAWAKITA V. UNITED STATES, 343 U. S. 717 (1952)

Some countries say that anyone born with certain heritage are citizens (Poland, Italy, Greece; France and Germany at various times in the past for example). Past presidents that could have claimed dual citizenship are: Kennedy (Irish), T Roosevelt, FDR, Taft, (all French Huguenot), Arthur (Irish), Wilson (Canadian), Eisenhower (German, up to WWII that is), others.

It’s also an equal protection problem. Two babies born the same day in the same place, one with parents born in a country that doesn’t allow duality the other born in one that does. Is it fair to exclude the one with dual nationality?