Status as a natural-born citizen of the United States is one of the eligibility requirements established in the United States Constitution for holding the office of president or vice president. This requirement was intended to protect the nation from foreign influence.

The U.S. Constitution uses but does not define the phrase "natural born Citizen" and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its exact meaning. The consensus of early 21st-century constitutional and legal scholars, together with relevant case law, is that natural-born citizens include, subject to exceptions, those born in the United States. As to those born elsewhere who meet the legal requirements for birthright citizenship, the consensus emerging as of 2016 was that they also are natural-born citizens.

The first nine presidents and the 12th president, Zachary Taylor, were all citizens at the adoption of the constitution in 1789, with all being born within the territory held by the United States and recognized in the Treaty of Paris. All presidents who have served since were born in the United States. Of the 45 individuals who became president, there have been eight that had at least one parent who was not born in the United States.

The natural-born-citizen clause has been mentioned in passing in several decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and by some lower courts that have addressed eligibility challenges, but the Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of a specific presidential or vice-presidential candidate's eligibility as a natural-born citizen. Many eligibility lawsuits from the 2008, 2012, and 2016 election cycles were dismissed in lower courts due to the challengers' difficulty in showing that they had standing to raise legal objections. Additionally, some experts have suggested that the precise meaning of the natural-born-citizen clause may never be decided by the courts because, in the end, presidential eligibility may be determined to be a non-justiciable political question that can be decided only by Congress rather than by the judicial branch of government.

Constitutional provisions

Article Two, Section 1 of the United States Constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as president of the United States, under clause 5 (emphasis added):

Under the original Constitution, members of the Electoral College cast two votes for president, with the runner-up elected vice president. The Twelfth Amendment requires the vice president is to be elected separately, and concludes with the clause, "No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

The Fourteenth Amendment does not address the issue of presidential eligibility or use the phrase natural-born citizen. It states, "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."

Under Article One, representatives and senators are required to be U.S. citizens, but there is no requirement that they be natural born, in contrast to the presidential requirement.U.S. Constitution: Article 1, Section 2, Clause 2: Qualifications of MembersU.S. Constitution: Article 1, Section 3, Clause 3: Qualifications of Senators

History Antecedents in Britain The use of the term "natural born" was not without precedent. An early recorded example was in Calvin's Case (1608), which ruled that a person born in any place subject to the King of England (which at the time included Scotland and Ireland as separate kingdoms, and formerly many parts of France) was a natural born subject of England and therefore entitled to bring a civil suit in an English court. Statutes in Britain prior to American independence used the phrase "natural born subject". For example, clause III of the Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708 provided:Great Britain, Statutes of the Realm, Vol. 9, p. 63 (London, Dawsons of Pall Mall 1822, reprinted 1962).

The Act was repealed (except for the quoted clause III regarding foreign-born children)William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1, p. 363 (Oxford, The Clarendon Press 1765) by the Tories in 1711 by the statute 10 Anne c. 5.

Subsequently, the British Nationality Act 1730 provided:

for the explaining the said recited Clause in the said Act . . . [t]hat all Children born out of the Ligeance of the Crown of England, or of Great Britain, or which shall hereafter be born out of such Ligeance, whose Fathers were or shall be natural-born Subjects of the Crown of England, or of Great Britain, at the Time of the Birth of such Children respectively ... are hereby declared to be natural-born Subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever.

Another use is in the Plantation Act 1740:Cohen, Elizabeth. "Citizenship and the Law of Time in the United States", Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy, Vol. 8, p. 67 n. 59 (2013).

Jurist William Blackstone wrote in 1765 that "Natural-born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England".McManamon, Mary. "The Natural Born Citizen Clause as Originally Understood", Catholic University Law Review, v. 64, no. 2 (2015).Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1, p. 354 (Oxford, The Clarendon Press 1765). Blackstone added that offspring who are not inhabitants may also be natural born subjects:Dann, Carrie. "Yes, Ted Cruz Was Born in Canada. So What?", NBC News (March 26, 2015).

In 1775, however, Blackstone reversed his opinion and explained that the children "are now deemed to be natural-born subjects" rather than "are now natural-born subjects."Blackstone, William. "Commentaries on the Laws of England", Vol. 1, p. 373 (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 7th ed. 1775).

Similarly, Francis Plowden initially explained that an early English statute made foreign-born children of English parents "in fact and law . . . true native subjects" and that the eighteenth-century British statutes made persons natural-born subjects by statute law just as others were natural-born subjects by the common law.Plowden, Francis. "An Investigation of the Native Rights of British Subjects", pp. 74, 161-62 (London, Baldwin, Whieldon & Debrett 1784). However, after further consideration he also reversed his opinion and concluded in 1785 that the statutes did not make the children natural born subjects—rather, there remained a "relict of alienage in them."Plowden, Francis. "A Supplement to the Investigation of the Native Rights of British Subjects", p. 134 (London, Baldwin, Whieldon & Debrett 1785).

Prior to Blackstone, Edward Coke offered a narrower opinion in Calvin's Case.7 Coke Report 1a, 77 ER 377 (1608), Opinion of Edward Coke. According to Coke: "[I]f any of the King's Ambassadors in foreign nations, have children there of their wives, being English women, by the common laws of England they are natural-born subjects, and yet they are born out of the King's dominions."Edwards, F. B. "Natural-Born British Subjects at Common Law", Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, Vol. 14, p. 318 (1914).

The term "natural born" has often been used synonymously with "native born". The English lexicographer Samuel Johnson wrote in 1756 that the word "natural" means "native," and that the word "native" may mean either an "inhabitant" or an "offspring".

Between 1776 and 1789 From the Declaration of Independence (1776) to the ratification of the Constitution (1789), the thirteen states were independent of Britain, and during much of this time the Articles of Confederation tied together the country. The phrase "natural born citizen" was sometimes used during this period. An example occurred in 1784 when the Maryland General Assembly conferred citizenship on the (French-born) Marquis de Lafayette:Riley, Elihu. "The Ancient City": A History of Annapolis, in Maryland, 1649-1887, p. 198 (Record Printing Office 1887).

Constitutional Convention The Constitution does not explain the meaning of "natural born". On June 18, 1787, Alexander Hamilton submitted to the Convention a sketch of a plan of government.Pryor, Jill A. "The Natural-Born Citizen Clause and Presidential Eligibility: An Approach for Resolving Two Hundred Years of Uncertainty". 97 Yale Law Journal 881, 889 (1988) The sketch provided for an executive "Governour" but had no eligibility requirements. At the close of the Convention, Hamilton conveyed a paper to James Madison which he said delineated the Constitution that he wished had been proposed by the Convention; he had stated its principles during the deliberations. Max Farrand wrote that it "was not submitted to the Convention and has no further value than attaches to the personal opinions of Hamilton."3 M. Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 619. Article IX, section 1 of Hamilton's draft constitution provided: "No person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a Citizen of one of the States, or hereafter be born a Citizen of the United States."3 Farrand, at 629.

On July 25, 1787, John Jay wrote to George Washington, presiding officer of the Convention:

Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural Citizen.

While the Committee of Detail originally proposed that the President must be merely a citizen, as well as a resident for 21 years, the Committee of Eleven changed "citizen" to "natural born citizen", and the residency requirement to 14 years, without recorded explanation after receiving Jay's letter. The Convention accepted the change without further recorded debate.

Constitutionality of the natural-born-citizen clause In 2012, Abdul Karim Hassan filed several unsuccessful lawsuits that claimed the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment had superseded the natural-born-citizen clause; he had argued natural-born citizenship was a form of discrimination based on national origin.

Cenk Uygur, a naturalized U.S. citizen seeking participation in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries, was excluded from states' ballots after making arguments similar to Hassan's. Shiva Ayyadurai, also a naturalized U.S. citizen seeking to participate in the 2024 United States presidential election, also made these arguments and was excluded.

Proposed constitutional amendments More than two dozen proposed constitutional amendments have been introduced in Congress to relax the restriction. Two of the more well known were introduced by Representative Jonathan Brewster Bingham in 1974, with the intent to allow German-born Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (otherwise fourth in the line of succession) to become eligible, and the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment by Senator Orrin Hatch in 2003, intending to allow eligibility for Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Bingham amendment would have also made clear the eligibility of those born abroad to U.S. parents, while the Hatch one would have allowed those who have been naturalized citizens for twenty years to be eligible.

Rationale