A conservative Republican political group contends that Vice President Kamala Harris is not a natural-born citizen and is not eligible to run for president and cites the notorious 1857 Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case, which said enslaved people were not citizens, in support of its claim.
The platform and policy document of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), a 90-year-old conservative political organization that once counted former president Ronald Reagan as a member, argues that the U.S. Constitution states that “No person except a natural born Citizen, shall be eligible, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
The document further states that “an originalist and strict constructionist understanding of the Constitution in the tradition of [conservative Supreme Court jurists Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas, and “precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court cases … have found that a ‘Natural Born Citizen’ is defined as a person born on American soil of parents who are both citizens of the United States at the time of the child’s birth.”
It goes on to argue that Harris, whose parents are immigrants from India and Jamaica, as well as former Republican 2024 presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, all have parents who “were not American citizens at the time of their birth” and thus not qualified to run for president.
Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, and is, therefore, a natural-born citizen, according to most legal experts.
Per a Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute explanation, “anyone born on U.S. soil and subject to its jurisdiction is a natural born citizen, regardless of parental citizenship,” Reuters reported, noting the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants citizenship to all people who are either born in or “naturalized” to the United States.
The NFRA, which endorsed Donald Trump for president during its October convention and has since endorsed J.D. Vance for vice president, said, “It is the will of this convention that only candidates who meet the natural born-citizenship standard, interpreted through an originalist and strict constructionist standard, be placed on the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballots.”
“This is peak Trump and his Republican Party, and it tracks with their plans in Project 2025 and an extreme agenda that will take our country backward,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who represents Georgia’s 5th Congressional District and is Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, told Atlanta Black Star while traveling with Harris in Savannah today. “In the words of Maya Angelou, when people show you who they are, believe them!”
Andrew Fleischman, an Atlanta defense attorney and legal pundit, brought attention to the NFRA’s birther stance on Harris with a recent post on X:
The conservative group cited six legal cases, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that Dred Scott, an enslaved Black man suing for his freedom, and all other enslaved people could not be citizens or expect to receive any protection from the federal government.
The majority opinion in the Dred Scott case held that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into (the U.S.) and sold as slaves,’ whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen,” observed Yvette Walker, the opinion editor for the Kansas City Star, who also pointed out that subsequent Constitutional amendments overturned the Dred Scott decision.
They include “the 13th (abolishing slavery), 14th (all those born here become U.S. citizens) and 15th (the right to vote can’t be denied based on race, color or previous condition of servitude)” she wrote, adding, “This argument attributed to the NFRA is a waste of time, brain cells and taxpayer money if it goes any further. … Why should we be able to use overturned racist laws and try to resurrect them legally?”
“This effort to disqualify her somehow is just misguided, misplaced, and continues in that Republican narrative of trying to say there’s something untoward about the election process,” Georgia state House Rep. Billy Mitchell, chair of the Georgia House Democratic caucus and president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators Foundation, told Atlanta Black Star.
“It won’t happen, but any court that would review this would deem this argument as frivolous. Clearly, Kamala Harris is a citizen and the bonafide candidate and Democratic nominee for president,” Mitchell said.
“To me, it shows how concerned [Republicans] are about the enthusiasm created since Kamala has been the party flagbearer. The amount of money raised, the number of volunteers that have come on board since she’s been the candidate is just historic. The only ones this kind of effort really appeals to is their base. This is one last grasp for anything that they can hold onto, which will prove futile. It’s up to the voters now.”
NFRA President Alex Johnson downplayed his organization’s reliance on the Dred Scott case to support its position that Harris is not qualified to be president in a statement to The Independent this week.
“The media’s suggestion that referencing a court case in a 30+ page document equates to endorsing every aspect of the case is inherently dishonest and misleading,” he stated. “We firmly believe that faux Democrat Ms. Harris should never hold office for any of the many reasons people choose to highlight, including her party’s tactics on dividing people by race and class. … These policies have historically resulted in widespread suffering, economic collapse and the erosion of individual freedoms. The Democrat Party preys on the ignorance of voters.”
Harris is campaigning in the battleground state of Georgia this week and will have her first in-depth interview with a journalist since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her presidential bid. She and vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are expected to sit for a joint interview in south Georgia with CNN’s veteran political correspondent Dana Bash, scheduled to air at 9 pm ET on Thursday.
