Specification of Objections to
the Document from Mitt Romney as a Request for Ballot Access
in the New York Primary Election
for Republican Candidate for President of the United States
or any other named Republican Nominating or Designating Certificate or Petition or Request Designating Mitt Romney as a Candidate for President
Filed with the NYS Board of Elections on February 17, 2012
Christopher Garvey
(Republican Objector)
Address & Phone February ____, 2012
CERTIFIED RETURN RECEIPT #7011 1570 0003 5313 ______
To:
Election Operations
NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS,
40 Steuben Street
Albany New York 12207
Further to my General Objection mailed on ____________________________________________,
I, Christopher B. Garvey (Objector) specifically object to the:
Letter from Mitt Romney as a Request for Ballot Access in the New York Primary Election for Republican Candidate for President of the United States based on being a nationally known candidate, naming delegates and alternates, and giving as his only return address,
Miss Megan Sowards
Deputy General counsel for Mitt Romney
585 Commercial Street
Boston, MA 02109
and any other named Republican Nominating or Designating Certificate or Petition or Request Designating Mitt Romney as a Candidate for President
Filed with the NYS Board of Elections on February 17, 2012.
I refer for document identification to:
List of Filings for the Presidential Primary
Office: President
Republican
Mitt Romney 02/10/2010 Vols. 0 Pages 0 Supporting
Objector resides and is registered to vote as a Republican at:
_______________________________Objector is a duly registered Republican New York voter in the 2012 election cycle, and is qualified to vote for in the New York Primary for President of the United States.
I hereby specify the following objections:
The designated candidate Mitt Romney is not eligible for the Office of President of the United States and is therefore not eligible to run in the next New York Primary for President of the United States.
Objector references the NYS BOE notice that a document was filed on February 10, 2012 that designates Mitt Romney for ballot access in the next New York Primary as the Republican Party Candidate for President of the United States.
Objector challenges the Certification of both the declared candidate Mitt Romney and all the petitions and filing documents as a nullity, against the Constitution of the United States, and against public policy, in that Mitt Romney is not eligible for the Office of the President of the United States because he is not a “Natural Born Citizen” as is required under New York State law in compliance with the U.S. Constitution Article 2 Section 1 paragraph 5 and New York provision of law defining “Natural born Citizen”.
“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
A Natural Born Citizen is a person born in the United States of two United States Citizens.
Therefore all the designating petitions must be rejected as defective.
New York State has case law on the term “Natural Born Citizen” because New York State Law prohibited all but Natural Born Citizens from owning mines:
Mines in Saint Lawrence county. |
§ 18. Mines in Saint Lawrence county. The proprietors of any mines or
veins of lead or copper in the county of Saint Lawrence, may demise,
lease, or rent the same for a period not to exceed twenty-one years from
the date of any such lease, to any foreign individual or company, and
such lessee may take, hold, work, use or convey the same during the said
term, in the same manner and subject to the same liabilities as if such
lessee were a natural born citizen.
veins of lead or copper in the county of Saint Lawrence, may demise,
lease, or rent the same for a period not to exceed twenty-one years from
the date of any such lease, to any foreign individual or company, and
such lessee may take, hold, work, use or convey the same during the said
term, in the same manner and subject to the same liabilities as if such
lessee were a natural born citizen.
Objections are based upon the following timeline, constructed on information and belief, which shows that Mitt Romney's father George Romney, was a Mexican Citizen or a British Subject.
1757 Emmerich de Vattel, “The Law of Nations” Section 212:
“The natives, or natural born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents [both] who are citizens.”
The Law of Nations, written by Emmerich de Vattel, a Swiss-German philosopher of law. In that book, the following definition of a “natural born citizen” appears, in Book I, Chapter 19, § 212, of the English translation of 1797 (p. 110):
§ 212. Citizens and natives.
The citizens are the members of the civil society: bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. . . .
The French original of 1757, on that same passage read thus:
“Les naturels, ou indigenes, sont ceux qui sont nes dans le pays de parents citoyens, . . .”
The terms “natives” and “natural born citizens” are terms; used to translate the idea conveyed by the French phrase “les naturels, ou indigenes”: but both referred to the same category of citizen: one born in the country, of parents who were citizens of that country.
In the political philosophy of Vattel, the term “naturels” refers to citizens who are such by the natural circumstances of their birth — which they did not choose; the term “indigenes” is from the Latin, indigenes, which like the English, “indigenous”, means “begotten from within” (inde-genes), as in the phrase “the indigenous natives are the peoples who have been born and lived there for generations.” Hence the meaning the the term, “natural born citizen”, or “naturels ou indigenes” is the same: born in the country of two parents who are citizens of that country.
1775
Benjamin Franklin wrote [Exhibit 1] from Philadelphia Dec. 19, 1775 that the members of the Congress were consulting a copy of Vattel’s book to complete their work .
“I'm much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly that copy which I kept... has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes, and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author....”
See Exhibits 1 - 4 attached.
1787 - Vattel's term, “natural born citizen” appears in a letter [Ex 4] of the future Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, to George Washington during the Constitutional Convention.
John Jay wrote:
“Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise and reasonable to provide as 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 born Citizen. ---...”
1787 July 25 New York, Letter from John Jay to His Excellency General Washington, [Exhibit 4]
1794 The US "Senate made its first purchases: Blackstone's Commentaries and Vattel's Law of Nature and Nations." Exhibit 3.
Exhibit 5 is a my own Venn diagram of types of citizen in early America.
Marriage gave women their husband's citizenship automatically. So both parents had the same nationality [except out-of-wedlock]: that of the husband-father. There was no divided loyalty objection, because there was no divided parent citizenship. So the father's citizenship meant both parents' citizenship. In 1922 a change in US law eliminated marriage's automatic change of the wife's citizenship, Married Women's Act (the Cable Act). Today, it is possible to have one parent who is not a US citizen, which creates a divided loyalty obstruction to becoming Commander-in-chief.
For example, such a conflict of divided loyalty might arise if one's adopted father was an official of the Indonesian Army and a Citizen of Indonesia. For such an example, see: Obama Dreams of My Father.
1814
The Venus, 12 U.S. 8 Cranch 253 253 (1814)
Decided in A.D. 1814, at the beginning of the republic, by men who were intimately associated with the American Revolution. In that year the following men sat on the Supreme Court:
Bushrod Washington, (b. June 5, 1762 — d. Nov. 26, 1829), served Feb. 4, 1799 till Nov. 26, 1829.
John Marshall (b. Sept. 24, 1755 — d. July 6, 1835), served Feb. 4, 1891 till July 6, 1835.
William Johnson (b. Dec. 27, 1771 — d. Aug. 4, 1834), served May 7, 1804, till Aug. 4, 1834.
Henry Brockholst Livingston (b. Nov. 25, 1757 — d. Mar. 18, 1823), served Jan. 20, 1807 till March 18, 1823.
Thomas Todd (b. Jan. 23, 1765 — d. Feb. 7, 1826), served May 4, 1807 till Feb. 7, 1826.
Gabriel Duvall (b. Dec. 6, 1752 — d. Mar. 6, 1844), served Nov. 23, 1811 till Jany 14, 1835.
Joseph Story (b. Sept. 18, 1779 — d. Sept. 10, 1845), served Feb. 3, 1812 till Sept. 10, 1845.
Nearly all these men either participated in the American Revolution, or their fathers did. Joseph Story’s father took part in the original Boston Tea Party. Thomas Todd served 6 months in the army against the British; and participated in 5 Constitutional Conventions from 1784-1792. During the Revolutionary War, Henry Brockholst Livingston was a Lieutenant Colonel in the New York Line and an aide-de-camp to General Benedict Arnold, before the latter’s defection to the British. William Johnson’s father, mother, and elder brother were revolutionaries, who served as statesman, rebel, or nurse/assistant to the line troops, respectively. John Marshall was First Lieutenant of the Culpeper Minutemen of Virginia, and then Lieutenant in the Eleventh Virginian Continental Regiment, and a personal friend of General George Washington; and debated for ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the Virginian General Assembly. Bushrod Washington was George Washington’s nephew and heir.
Being witnesses and heirs of the Revolution, they understood what the Framers of the Constitution had intended.
The Venus case regarded the question whether the cargo of a merchantman, named the Venus, belonging to an American citizen, and being shipped from British territory to America during the War of 1812, could be seized and taken as a prize by an American privateer. But what the case said about citizenship, is what matters here.
WHAT THE VENUS CASE SAYS ON CITIZENSHIP
In The Venus Case, Justice Livingston, who wrote the unanimous decision, quoted the entire §212nd paragraph from the French edition, using his own English, on p. 12 of the ruling:
“The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives or indigenes are those born in the country of parents who are citizens. Society not being able to subsist and to perpetuate itself but by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights.
“The inhabitants, as distinguished from citizens, are strangers who are permitted to settle and stay in the country. Bound by their residence to the society, they are subject to the laws of the state while they reside there, and they are obliged to defend it…
1806 Miles Archebald Romney, b. Dalton-in-Furness, co. Lancaster, 13 July 1806, d. St. George, Utah, 3 May 1877 m. Dalton-in-Furness, co. Lancaster, 16 Nov. 1830 (Mitt Romney’s Great Great Grandfather), Miles Archebald Romney married in Liverpool to Elizabeth, both British Subjects.
1809 Elizabeth Gaskell, b. Dalton-in-Furness, co. Lancaster, 8 Jan. 1809, d. St. George, Utah, 11 Oct. 1884
1830 Miles Archebald Romney & Elizabeth Gaskell married. Dalton-in-Furness, Co. Lancaster, 16 Nov. 1830
1837 Romneys convert to Mormons
1839-Joseph Smith is in Nauvoo, IL.
1841 Great Great grandfather [Mitt’s] arrives in US. Miles Archebald Romney with wife Elizabeth and 5 children.
1841 Miles Archebald Romney moved to Nauvoo, IL.
I have found no indication that Miles Archebald Romney ever became a Citizen of the United States of America, . Miles Romney (1806-1877) and his wife Elizabeth Gaskell (1809-1884) lived in the Liverpool area. Following their baptism, they sailed for New Orleans and made their way up the Mississippi by steamboat arriving at Nauvoo in 1841. T
-----------------------------------
Becoming a Citizen
For most aliens the naturalization process was a two part process that took a minimum of five years though there were some exceptions. First an alien would file a declaration of intent. The court would keep a copy of the declaration and the alien would be given a copy to keep with him. After a proscribed period of residence an alien would file his petition for naturalization. When the alien filed his petition of naturalization, he returned his copy of his declaration of intention to the court. Following a change in the law in 1906 an alien also had to receive a certificate of arrival from the Immigration and Naturalization Service that verified his or her legal immigration. When an alien's petition was granted the court issued a certificate of citizenship to the alien. This document was the alien's official proof that he or she was now a U.S. citizenship.
There is no indication that the above Miles Archebald Romneys ever became US citizens.
1842 Hannah Hood Hill, (Mitt’s Great grandmother) born in Tosoronto Township, Simcoe, Ontario, 9 July 1842, d. Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, México, 29 Dec. 1928. She was a British Subject.
1842 Hill family arrived in Nauvoo with Hannah Hood Hill.
1843 Joseph Smith visited England.
1843 Miles Park Romney, Mitt’s Great grandfather (1843-1904) born in 1843-Aug-18: Birth in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, USA of two British Subjects (Miles Archebald Romney & Elizabeth Gaskell) is therefore himself a British Subject under US and International Law.
1850 The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah.
1855 From 1855 to 1922, a married woman automatically assumed the citizenship of her husband; if an American woman married a foreign national, she lost her U.S. citizenship. Similarly, if a foreign national married a U.S. citizen, she automatically became a citizen. Her only documentation would be her marriage license and the naturalization (or birth) record of her husband. After 1922, a married woman was required to meet the naturalization laws although no declaration of intention was needed and residency changed from five years to one. http://archives.utah.gov/research/guides/naturalizations.htm
Miles Archebald Romney Moved to Utah
1862 The federal government in Washington passed the Morrell Act outlawing polygamy. (The bill was signed by Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the civil war.) This law was not enforced as can be seen from the 1880 census where multiple wives are listed.
1862 March 10 Miles Park Romney marries to Hannah Hood Hill (1842-1929 Mitt’s Great Grandmother) in Salt Lake City - She was born in Canada. Miles and Hannah had eleven [or possibly thirteen] children including Gaskell Romney (1871-1955).
1862 or 1863? Miles Park Romney was sent on a mission to England before their first child (Isabell 1863-1919) was born. While in England he preached for several years in the area around Liverpool (former home of his parents). He came back to Salt Lake City with a boatload of new English converts.
1863 New York State Court of Appeals in Ludlum v Ludlum , 26 N.Y. 356 (1863 March Term), defines Natural Born Citizen.
1866 Rep. John Bingham, author of the 14th Amendment, Congressional Globe, 39th , 1st Sess. Pg 1291 (March 9, 1866) stated:
“...every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.”
Note the reference to a singular child of plural parents, “not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty”. Both parents must not owe allegiance to any foreign sovereignty for the child to be a Natural Born Citizen.
This quote also demonstrates that the 14th Amendment did not apply to the children of British Subjects, who retained their own parent's nationality.
1867 In 1867 the Romney family moved from Salt Lake City to Saint George, Utah. St. George is in the southwest corner of the state on the Arizona border.
1867 -Mar-23 Miles Park Romney: Marriage to Caroline Lambourne (1846-1879) in Salt Lake City - two children
1868 14th Amendment -Ratified 7/9/1868.
1. 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The purpose of this Amendment was to prevent former slaves from being denied citizenship rights by their states. It was not intended to abrogate the right of citizenship of nationals of other Countries by usurping their right to give their own nationality to their children.
The Amendment refers to “any State”, not to territories.
--------------------------------
Discussion:
Gaskell and Anna were born in the Territory of Utah, but they were not born in the state of Utah. Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt Romney were both born of British Parents in the Territory of Utah in 1871 and 1876 respectively.
Gaskell’s father (Mitt’s great grandfather) Miles Romney was a polygamist. The 1882 Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship.
Since the Romney’s lived in the Territory of Utah at that time, did they have any US citizenship? If so, was it stripped by the Edmunds Act?
In 1884 Miles Romney moved his multiple wives and children from the Territory of Utah to Mexico. Then in 1896 the Territory of Utah became a state. Since the Romneys moved to Mexico before 1896, they could not have received US citizenship, since they were no longer residents of the Territory of Utah when it became a state.
When George W. Romney (Mitt’s father) was born in Mexico in 1907, George W. became a native Mexican (based on the location of his birth), whether or not he was legally recognized as such. Some argue that George W. Romney was in fact a Mexican citizen at birth. He may have been a British Subject, like his parents.
How did those in the Territory of Utah naturalize to become US citizens? One source states, “Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who applied for naturalization during the 1870s and 1880s were often denied because of polygamy.” https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Utah_Naturalization_and_Citizenship
Another article states that when the Territory of Utah became a state in 1896, “resident non-citizens did not automatically become U.S. citizens even if they had filed declarations of intention of becoming U.S. citizens.” The article also stated “We know from a contemporaneous news story that as of October 15 1967, George W. Romney hadn’t filed any particular papers to make himself a citizen.” http://wtpotus.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/mitt-romney-natural-born-citizenship-and-media-bias/
So since Mitt’s grandparents, Gaskell (born of British Subjects) and Anna Romney were born in the Territory of Utah (which did not automatically make them US citizens) and had left the Territory of Utah before it became a state, where is the proof that Gaskell and Anna Romney had US citizenship to pass on to their son George W. Romney when he was born in Mexico in 1907? Where is the proof that George W. Romney had US citizenship to pass on to his son Mitt Romney when he was born in 1947?
----------------------
1870 Amendment 15 - Race No Bar to Vote. Ratified 2/3/1870.
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
1871 Gaskell Romney (Mitt’s Grandfather) was born in Utah, the son of Miles Romney and Elizabeth Gaskell two British Subjects; thereby becoming a British Subject.
7 FAM 1121.3 Status of Inhabitants of Territories, Absent Laws Defining Status
(TL:CON-66; 10-10-96) c. A child born in an outlying possession before January 13, 1941, whose father (or mother if the child was born out of wedlock) was a non-citizen U.S. national, was held to have acquired the parent’s status, and a child born there to alien parents was held not to have acquired U.S. Nationality.
Therefore Gaskell Romney was not a US National.
1873 -Sep-15 Miles Park Romney: Marriage to Catharine Jane Cottam (1855-1918) in Salt Lake City - 10 children
1877 Aug-01 Miles Park Romney: Marriage to Annie Marie Woodbury (1858-1930) in St George Utah - 8 children
The United States census lists Miles Park Romney, his two wives Hannah Hood Hill and Catherine Jane Cottam, and six of Hannah’s children, including her son Gaskell who was eight years old at the time.
1881 Miles Park Romney Moved to St George, Utah to build Temple.
1881 Miles Park Romney Moved to Az.
1882 The Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship, denying them the right to vote, serve on juries or hold office. Not dissimilar to current immigration raids, U.S. federal agents hunted and arrested polygamists. Polygamists were forced to leave the country or risk jail.
1886 Miles Park Romney started for Mexico with his family, Tom Mahoney The Story Of George Romney (1960).
Gaskell Romney (Mitt’s Grandfather) was 15 years old; too young to ratify his citizenship in a US Court. His intention, and that of his parents, seems to be to become a permanent Mexican national or citizen.
According to Mahoney:
- Mitt Romney’s great-grandfather fled with his three wives to Mexico so they could continue their polygamist lifestyle with a multitude of other Mormon polygamists and settled there, cutting land deals with Mexican president, Porfirio Diaz using funds that came from The Mormon Church. President Diaz was happy to have the Mormon settlers there as a buffer against the Apache Indians. (pg.51)
- With others, Helaman Pratt obtained permission from Diaz for Miles Park Romney and other Mormon refugees to buy lands and establish colonies in Mexico. Partly with funds advanced by the Church, they purchased large, mostly undeveloped tracts in Sonora and Chihuahua. Diaz was happy to have colonists there as buffers against the Apache Indians
1887 The Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 was enforced. Archibald Newell Hood (Hannah’s father) and her brother (Samuel) were arrested, fined, and imprisoned for several months in Salt Lake City for practicing polygamy. About 1,300 Mormon men were imprisoned in the late 1880s.
1890 9/24/1890 Mormon Church advised Mormons to refrain from polygamy. In 1890, The Mormon Church lost their case to the Supreme Court which upheld Edmunds-Tucker Act, so Utah came out with their Manifesto soon afterward which condemned plural marriage:
- The “1890 Manifesto”, sometimes simply called “The Manifesto”, is a statement which officially disavowed the continuing practice of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Issued by church president Wilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons.
- The Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in the history of the LDS Church. It officially prohibited church members from entering into any marriage prohibited by the law of the land, and made it possible for Utah to become a U.S. state.
- Nevertheless, even after the Manifesto, the church quietly continued to perform a small number of plural marriages in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, thus necessitating a Second Manifesto during U.S. congressional hearings in 1904.
In regards to the missionaries, the expatriate Mormons had to become Mexican citizens since missionary work by foreigners was prohibited by Mexican law at the time.
Mexico only allowed citizens to conduct missions/missionary work. The Mormons operated missions in Mexico.
1891= 5 years + 1886 Under the operative immigration law of nations at the time, each government had a tacit agreement about such expatriates to avoid being put into delicate situations of having to defend Americans on foreign soil. This was operative when the Mormons fled Utah. The standard was that if an American stayed five or so years, each country would consider he had rejected his native country’s citizenship. This made Miles Park Romney and his son George Romney both Mexican Citizens.
George W. Romney was born in Mexico, son of the head elder (Gaskell Romney), who was in Mexico for about 3 decades before George W. Romney's birth, said Gaskell Romney must have been a Mexican [or British] citizen. Therefore, Gaskell Romney could not bestow American citizenship, much less “natural born” citizenship to George W. Romney. Since George W. Romney [Mexican or British] was therefore not an American citizen, George W. Romney could not eventually bestow natural born citizen status to his son Mitt Romney.
1892 Gaskell Romney (Mitt’s Grandfather) became 21 years old; old enough to declare his citizenship in a US Court. But he lived in Mexico. His intention and that of his parents seemed to be to become a permanent Mexican national or citizen. He did not live in the United States for at least 5 years before his 23rd birthday in 1894.
-----------------------------
Minors (Children)
- Minor children were granted derivative citizenship when their father, or after 1922 their parent, was naturalized. This practice remained in place for children under the age of 21 from 1790 to 1940. There usually will be no record of a minor child's derivative citizenship unless he/she applied to the INS after 1929 for a certificate of citizenship.
- Between 1824 and 1906 an alien who arrived as a minor, had lived in the United States for at least 5 years before their 23rd birthday, and whose father had not become a U.S. naturalized citizen could file his declaration and petition at the same time. Although the forms used for this process varied from court to court, the declaration of intention and petition for naturalization are usually found on one form.
There is no evidence that Gaskell ever:
arrived as a minor in the US,
lived in the United States for at least 5 years before his 23rd birthday,
filed his declaration or petition to be a US Citizen.
Therefore, Gaskell was not a US Citizen.
1895 -Feb-20 Miles Park Romney married Anna Amelia Pratt (1876-1926) in Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. She was the grand daughter of Mormon Pioneer Parley Pratt.
1896 Utah becomes a State Jan 4, 1896
1897 -Feb-02 : Miles Park Romney married Emily Henrietta Eyring (1870-1947) in Dublan Mexico, widow of William Snow. They begat no children, but she already had two children from the Snow marriage.
1904 Miles Park Romney (Mitt's Great Grandfather) died at Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico, evidencing his intent to remain a Mexican for life.
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Women
- Early naturalization laws did not restrict naturalization for women and in theory alien women could apply for citizenship. However a variety of laws began to limit a woman's rights to naturalization culminating in a 1855 law that effectively restricted naturalization for women. The 1855 act held that "[a]ny woman who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a citizen." Essentially the law said that a woman held the citizenship of her husband. For instance if a German woman immigrated to the United States and married a U.S. citizen, she automatically became a citizen. Or if a German couple immigrated to the United States and the husband was naturalized, his wife was considered a citizen by virtue of his naturalization. A strange quirk of this law was that if a woman who was a native-born U.S. citizen married a foreigner, the U.S. government considered that she had given up her U.S. citizenship in favor of her husband's citizenship. This was a matter of debate for some time but an act in March of 1907 codified it in law.
- Few women pursued naturalization before 1920 because women couldn't vote - the major right of citizenship - and in many places couldn't own property. Following the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, there was a movement to change the laws relating to naturalization of women. Many asked why a woman should automatically be granted the right to vote through marriage. Congress passed the Married Women's Act (the Cable Act) on September 22, 1922. Women were now able to apply for naturalization on their own. Included in the Cable Act, was a provision to allow American born women who had lost their citizenship due to their marriages to foreigners to file petitions to become citizens. Many U.S. born women who had married foreign citizens did not believe they should have to file for a citizenship to which they had been born. In 1936 Congress passed a new act that allowed U.S. born women who had married foreigners between 1907 and 1922 to take an oath of allegiance (sometimes mistakenly called a repatriation petition).
http://www.ourarchives.wikispaces.net/women
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1904 Second Manifesto of Church during U.S. congressional hearings in 1904 rejecting Polygamy.
1907 George W. Romney (Mitt's father) was born in Mexico. George W. Romney was born in a Mormon Colony, Colonia Dublán, in Galeana, State of Chihuahua, Mexico, on July 8, 1907. His parents were Gaskell and Anna Amelia Pratt Romney, both ex-patriot British citizens who were born in Utah and who met and married in Mexico, and who seem to have become Mexican Citizens.
George W. Romney's birth on foreign soil, raises the question of citizenship “by descent” of children born to American citizens on foreign soil. Citizenship lies in two concepts of international law:
a) birth in-country, or jure soli (by right of the soil) by which George would be Mexican;
or
b) from birth outside the country to parents who are citizens, jure sanguinis (by right of blood).
George was born in Mexico of British Subjects or Mexican Citizens, so he is either:
by jure soli (by right of the soil) a Mexican Citizen, or
by jure sanguinis (by right of blood), a British Subject or Mexican Citizen.
1908 Mitt’s mother, Lenore Romney, was born in Logan, Utah on November 9, 1908. She was an American citizen at birth.
1913 George & parents move to El Paso refugee center. They were temporary exiles. George said: "We were the first displaced persons of the 20th century." Mitt Romney has repeated this admission and thus adopted it as his own.
A displaced person (sometimes abbreviated DP) is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration. Displaced person - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displaced_person
displaced person n. One who has been driven from one's homeland by war or internal upheaval.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
displaced person
a person forced from his or her country, esp. as a result of war, and left homeless elsewhereWebster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
displaced person
noun a person driven or expelled from his or her homeland by war, famine, tyranny, etc. Abbreviation: DP, D.P. Origin: 1940–45 Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Definition of DISPLACED PERSON
: a person expelled, deported, or impelled to flee from his country of nationality or habitual residence by the forces or consequences of war or oppression —abbr. DP
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/displaced%20person
displaced person
noun
- someone who has been forced to leave their own country and live somewhere else, for example because there is a war in their own country
The use by George Romney of the phrase: “Displaced Person” is thus an admission that George Romney regarded his native place, country of nationality, own country, nationality, and homeland as Mexico.
1938 Twenty-six years after the Romneys were forced from Mexico, the case of "Gaskell Romney vs. United States of Mexico" was heard in Salt Lake City in 1938. Gaskell requested $28,753 in damages. He was awarded $9,163, court records show — a sizable amount then.
The records say Gaskell gave half of the award to his son, George, which would have helped to put him on his road to becoming chairman of American Motors and governor of Michigan.
1947 Mitt Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 12, 1947. His parents were George W. Romney [Mexican or British by blood or Mexican by birth in Mexico] and Lenore LaFount Romney, who married in Salt Lake City on July 2, 1931. At the time of his birth, Mitt’s father served as general manager of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, in Detroit.
1967 According to an October 15, 1967 New York Times interview with George Romney, who was then seeking the 1968 Republican nomination for President of the United States, it appears that he did not at any time apply for naturalization.
- According to the Times report, “Governor Romney said today that the question of his constitutional eligibility for office had been studied by lawyers and that he believed it posed no problem… Governor Romney said that he did not have to file any papers to become an American citizen since both his parents had been born in the United States…”
However, both George's parents were Mexican Citizens, or British Subjects, when George was born.
Wherefore: Objector challenges Mitt Romney and or his agents to prove that both of his parents at the time of his birth were US Citizens; particularly Mexican born George Romney.
I specifically object to the the Letter to designate the unqualified candidate, Mitt Romney, as a candidate for President on the NY Primary Ballot.
Objector objects on the basis of the U.S. Constitution Article 2 Section 1 paragraph 5 (1) eligibility “natural-born Citizen”.
Objector cautions the New York State Board of Elections against using as a criteria the novel inapplicable phrase “Born a Citizen” (under “Running for Office” at BOE website), instead of the Constitutional term “natural born Citizen”.
The Natural Born Citizen idiom was selected by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to conform with the concerns of the People of New York who were intent to safeguard sovereignty, to reflect history and practice of the “Law of Nations”(2) since Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New York, July 26, 1788, and that as defined by the Legislature by statute example in the Real Property Law Article 2 Section 18 (3),and as relates to matters of inheritance, that have since been upheld by the State of New York Court of Appeals in its precedents that also conform with precedents of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) before and after the addition of the 14th amendment that did not amend the Natural Born Citizen idiom, or warrant any assertion by the NYS BOE, other than “natural-born Citizen”. The BOE may not paraphrase the Constitution to change its meaning to some ill-defined or differently defined “born a citizen” term, as indicated on the BOE's website this election for the very first time.
There is no state statutory provision warranting NYS BOE to use “Born a Citizen” per se rather than Natural Born Citizen; and therefore, is strictly a U.S. Constitutional Article 2 Section 1 Paragraph 5 Natural Born Citizen eligibility issue that the NYS BOE must conform to, in compliance with the body of common law of the New York Courts (4), and in accordance with SCOTUS precedents (5) that are contrary to “Born a Citizen” idiom use.
Objector notes that my mother explained to me, when I was a child:
that she could never be President, because she was a naturalized citizen; but,
the fact that she had naturalized before the birth of her children, and married a another U.S. citizen, meant that I could be President.
It is interesting that this once-common Constitutional knowledge, of an immigrant, seems to have been somehow obscured by the last few decades.
As required, prior to filing this Specification of Objections, a true and correct copy of it, together with any and all attachments was mailed by, registered or certified mail
Certificate 7011 1570 0003 5313 __________
to the only person and address named on the Romney's Document as the Representative of the Candidate for service of this notice:
Miss Megan Sowards
Deputy General counsel for Mitt Romney
585 Commercial Street
Boston, MA 02109
Proof of such Service is attached hereto in the form of a copy of the certified mailing receipt for the same and Certificate of Service.
Feb. 27, 2012 Signed
Chris. Garvey (Republican Objector)
Endnotes
Exhibits 1 to 5
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
3 NYS RPL § 18. Mines in Saint Lawrence county. The proprietors of any mines or veins of lead or copper in the county of Saint Lawrence, may demise, lease, or rent the same for a period not to exceed twenty-one years from the date of any such lease, to any foreign individual or company, and such lessee may take, hold, work, use or convey the same during the said term, in the same manner and subject to the same liabilities as if such lessee were a natural born citizen.
New York Appellate Division Reports
New York Court of Appeals Reports
Lynch v. Clarke, 1 Sand.Ch. 583, 659-663 (N.Y. 1844)
5 Minor. v. Happersett: 88 U.S. 162 (1875), 21 Wall. 162, and 22 L. Ed. 627
Cases citing Minor: Boyd. v. Nebraska, 143 U.S. 135 (1892); Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 815 (1971); City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S 55 (1980); Baldwin v. Fish & Game Comm’m of Montana, 436 U.S 371 (1978) ; Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937); US v. CLASSIC, 313 U.S. 299 (1941); Colgate v. Harvey, 296 U.S. 404 (1935); Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559 (1911); Hague v. Committee For Industrial Organization, 307 U.S. 496 (1939); Hamilton v. Regents, 293 U.S. 245 (1934); Harris v. Mcrae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980); Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S 47 (1907); Kepner v. U.S., 195 U.S. 100 (1904); Kramer v. Union Free Sch. Dist., 395 U.S. 621 (1969); Lynch v. Overholser, 369 U.S. 705 (1962); N.Y. Ex Rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman, 278 U.S. 63 (1928); Rodriguez v. Popular Democratic Party, 457 U.S. 1 (1982); Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 816 (1971); Schick v. U.S., 195 U.S. 65 (1904); Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U.S. 1 (1944); South Carolina v. US, 199 U.S. 437 (1905); In Re Summers, 325 U.S. 561 (1945); U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark,169 U.S. 649 (1898); Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23 (1968)
Cases citing Minor: Boyd. v. Nebraska, 143 U.S. 135 (1892); Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 815 (1971); City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S 55 (1980); Baldwin v. Fish & Game Comm’m of Montana, 436 U.S 371 (1978) ; Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937); US v. CLASSIC, 313 U.S. 299 (1941); Colgate v. Harvey, 296 U.S. 404 (1935); Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559 (1911); Hague v. Committee For Industrial Organization, 307 U.S. 496 (1939); Hamilton v. Regents, 293 U.S. 245 (1934); Harris v. Mcrae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980); Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S 47 (1907); Kepner v. U.S., 195 U.S. 100 (1904); Kramer v. Union Free Sch. Dist., 395 U.S. 621 (1969); Lynch v. Overholser, 369 U.S. 705 (1962); N.Y. Ex Rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman, 278 U.S. 63 (1928); Rodriguez v. Popular Democratic Party, 457 U.S. 1 (1982); Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 816 (1971); Schick v. U.S., 195 U.S. 65 (1904); Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U.S. 1 (1944); South Carolina v. US, 199 U.S. 437 (1905); In Re Summers, 325 U.S. 561 (1945); U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark,169 U.S. 649 (1898); Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23 (1968)
Ex Parte Lockwood, 154 U.S. 116 (1894), that is essentially the holy grail of support for Minor v. Happersett, as it states:“In Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162, this court held that the word ‘citizen’ is often used to convey the idea of membership in a nation, and, in that sense, women, if born of citizen parents within the jurisdiction of the United States, have always been considered citizens of the United States, as much so before the adoption of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution as since…” (Emphasis added) and also the City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980)
Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94 (1884)
Inglis v. Sailors’ Snug Harbor, 28 U.S. 99, 3 Pet. 99, 7 L.Ed. 617 (1830) therein C.J. John Marshal on how New York law and British common law apply before and after 1776 Independence affects the right to take land in controversy by descent in New York:
