After several right-wing political influencers called into question Vice President Kamala Harris’s eligibility for office, despite her serving as vice president for three and a half years, Fordham Law Professor Thomas Lee spoke with The Dispatch Fact Check about her eligibility for office from the perspective of originalism.
In a 2018 survey article on the original meaning of the phrase, Fordham law professor Thomas Lee determined that “natural born citizen” applied to almost any individual born in the U.S. regardless of parentage. “I believe that the constitutional natural born citizen requirement to be President, as a matter of original public meanings, meant anyone who was (1) born in the United States who is not the child of a foreign diplomat or invading army; or (2) born outside of the United States to a U.S. citizen father abroad on a non-permanent basis,” Lee told The Dispatch Fact Check. “Because Harris’ parents were both lawfully admitted graduate students and she was born in the United States, I think that she qualifies as a natural born citizen eligible for the Presidency, at least from the perspective of originalism,” Lee added.
Read “Claims That Kamala Harris Is Ineligible to Be President Are False” in The Dispatch.
