Rick Santorum Is An Article II
Natural Born Citizen and Eligible to Be President
By Mario Apuzzo,
Esq.
January 28, 2015
Rick
Santorum will be a presidential candidate in 2016. As we know, the President and Commander in
Chief of the Military must be, among other things (at least 35 years old and a
resident in the United States at least 14 years), an Article II “natural born Citizen”
in order to be eligible for that Office.
There has been some chatter that Rick Santorum is not a natural born
citizen and therefore not eligible to be President. My research shows the contrary, i.e., that
Rick Santorum is a natural born citizen and therefore eligible to be President
and Commander in Chief of the Military.
The one and only definition of a
natural born citizen the Framers used when they adopted the Constitution is the universal one which is a
child born in a country to parents who were its citizens at the time of the
child's birth, meaning, when applied to the United States, a child born in the
United States to parents who were both U.S. citizens at the time of the child's
birth. See Emer de Vattel, The Law of Nations, Section 212 (1758) (1797) ) (“The natives, or natural-born
citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens”); Minor
v. Happersett (1875) (“‘At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers
of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children, born
in a country, of parents who were its citizens, became themselves, upon their
birth, citizens also. These were natives, or [902]
natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners”);
U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) (distinguished a "natural born citizen"
as so originally defined by the common law at the time of the adoption of the
Constitution per Minor from a "citizen" at birth under the Fourteenth
Amendment which was ratified 81 years after the adoption of the
Constitution). Does Rick Santorum meet the Framers’
common law definition of an Article II natural born citizen” My research shows that he does.
Rick
Santorum was born on May 10, 1958 in Virginia.
"Rick Santorum is the middle of the three children of Aldo Santorum
(1923–2011), a clinical psychologist who immigrated to the United States at age
seven from Riva del Garda, Italy, and Catherine (Dughi) Santorum (b. 1918), an
administrative nurse who is of Italian and Irish ancestry.[8] Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia, and grew up in Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Butler County, Pennsylvania.” (footnotes omitted). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum . Aldo Santorum (Rick Santorum’s father, who was born
on January 9, 1923 in
Italy)
was the son of Pietro Santorum (Rick Santorum’s grandfather). Pietro, an Italian citizen, came to America on
November 20, 1923, and naturalized to become a citizen of the United States on April 14, 1930. See the research done by Commander Charles F. Kerchner at https://www.scribd.com/doc/86126538/Pietro-Santorum-Naturalization-Records-filed-1930-at-Somerset-County-PA-Courthouse
When Pietro became a citizen of the
United States, Aldo was a minor and still living in Italy. Aldo got derivative U.S. citizenship through his
father, Pietro, when Aldo arrived in the United States on August 23, 1930 when he was age
7.
Aldo Santorum automatically become a citizen on August 23, 1930 through the naturalization of his father which had already occurred on April 14, 1930. This type of citizenship is called derivative citizenship. But since he was neither born in the United States nor naturalized in the formal sense after his birth, he did not have any evidence that he was a U.S. citizen. So, on April 17, 1961, he filed for a Certificate of Citizenship, not to obtain citizenship which he already had since 1930, but only to obtain evidence of that citizenship. His application and related documents have also been obtained by Mr. Kerchner and can be viewed here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/108907280/100-Proof-Rick-Santorum-Born-a-Dual-Citizen-Not-a-Natural-Born-Citizen-Father-perfected-naturalization-3-yrs-after-Rick-was-born-FOIA-Response-R . These documents show that Aldo served in the U.S. military from 1944 to 1946. The Immigration and Naturalization Officer who reviewed his application recommended that his Certificate of Citizenship be granted, concluding:
"[T]he applicant did derive or acquire United States citizenship on August 23, 1930 through on which date he was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and under the age of 21 years, his father having been naturalized on April 14, 1930, his mother being an alien. and that he has not been expatriated since that time."
Rick was not yet born when Pietro and Aldo became U.S. citizens in 1930. Aldo married Catherine (Dughi) Santorum, who was a U.S. citizen. Hence, when Rick Santorum was born on May 10, 1958, to Aldo and Catherine, both his parents were U.S. citizens.
Aldo Santorum automatically become a citizen on August 23, 1930 through the naturalization of his father which had already occurred on April 14, 1930. This type of citizenship is called derivative citizenship. But since he was neither born in the United States nor naturalized in the formal sense after his birth, he did not have any evidence that he was a U.S. citizen. So, on April 17, 1961, he filed for a Certificate of Citizenship, not to obtain citizenship which he already had since 1930, but only to obtain evidence of that citizenship. His application and related documents have also been obtained by Mr. Kerchner and can be viewed here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/108907280/100-Proof-Rick-Santorum-Born-a-Dual-Citizen-Not-a-Natural-Born-Citizen-Father-perfected-naturalization-3-yrs-after-Rick-was-born-FOIA-Response-R . These documents show that Aldo served in the U.S. military from 1944 to 1946. The Immigration and Naturalization Officer who reviewed his application recommended that his Certificate of Citizenship be granted, concluding:
"[T]he applicant did derive or acquire United States citizenship on August 23, 1930 through on which date he was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and under the age of 21 years, his father having been naturalized on April 14, 1930, his mother being an alien. and that he has not been expatriated since that time."
Rick was not yet born when Pietro and Aldo became U.S. citizens in 1930. Aldo married Catherine (Dughi) Santorum, who was a U.S. citizen. Hence, when Rick Santorum was born on May 10, 1958, to Aldo and Catherine, both his parents were U.S. citizens.
We have
seen that both de facto President Barack Obama and Senator Ted Cruz, both not
born in the United States to parents who were both U.S. citizens at the time of
their son’s birth, do not satisfy the constitutional common law definition of a
natural born citizen. See my many
articles on this issue at my blog, http://puzo1.blogspot.com
. On the other hand, my research shows
that when Rick Santorum was born in Virginia in 1958, he was born to a father
and mother who were both citizens of the United States. Those birth circumstances make Rick Santorum
an Article II natural born citizen and eligible to be President and Commander
in Chief of the Military.
Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
####
Copyright © 2015
Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
All Rights Reserved
Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
All Rights Reserved
