Kamala Harris ‘ineligible’ to run for president, claims Republican group citing infamous Dred Scott ruling; What is it?

Citing the controversial Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling from 1857, which held that persons under slavery weren’t citizens, the NFRA also contested the former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, and American biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s eligibility to be listed on Republican primary ballots.

The platform and policy document of the Republican group stated that the Constitution’s requirements for presidential eligibility state 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.”

Attorney Andrew Fleischman first shared the document and the reference to the Dred Scott ruling on social media platform X.

“Did the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) really unanimously adopt the position that Kamala Harris is ineligible to be President based on… the Dred Scott decision?!” he asked.

Reacting to the post, one X user blasted the group for citing the Dred Scott decision, which is “atrocious”. “They the latter cases *completely* wrong, like opposite-world wrong. An amazing display of racism and dishonesty.”

“Wow, this one takes the cake for the ‘Did they really just do that?’ award. Using the Dred Scott decision to argue about presidential eligibility in 2024 is like pulling out a flip phone and expecting it to connect to 5G,” another wrote.

“George Washington doesn’t qualify either, by this reasoning,” a third user added.

NFRA cites six cases: ‘Natural-born citizen has to be born in the US to…’

Last year in October, the NFRA adopted the document at their national convention. Referring to the opinions of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, it argues that the document says a child must be born in the United States to the parents who are the citizens of the country at the time of birth.

“An originalist and strict constructionist understanding of the Constitution in the Scalia and Thomas tradition, as well as 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,” according to the document.

The group further mentions six cases, one of which is Dred Scott v. Sandford. Before the beginning of the US Civil War in 1861 over the subject of slavery, a verdict in 1857 declared that those who served as slaves could not be citizens of the US, clarifying that they could not expect to be protected by the federal government or the courts. In addition, the decision held that Congress lacked the authority to outlaw slavery on government property.

According to the NFRA, a number of states, politicians, and significant political parties have disregarded this essential requirement for the presidency. It then mentions Haley, Ramaswamy, and Harris as their parents were not citizens of the United States at the time of their birth.

“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,” the group states in the document.

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NFRA president calls Harris ‘faux Democrat’

The NFRA gave Trump their endorsement last October. In a statement to The Independent, group’s president Alex Johnson, stated the media’s insinuation that mentioning a court case in a lengthy paper means condoning every facet of the case is fundamentally deceptive and dishonest.

Calling Harris “the faux Democrat”, Johnson stated she should never be in public office for any of the numerous reasons that people choose to bring up, including her party’s racial and class division strategies, which are similar to those that have proliferated into totalitarian regimes in countries like North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.

In the past, these policies have brought about tremendous suffering, economic catastrophe, and the diminution of personal freedoms, Johnson stated, adding that the Democratic Party takes advantage of voters’ ignorance.

A number of US presidents, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, would not have been able to continue in office as per the NFRA’s interpretation of the Constitution.

Scott v. Sandford ruling overturned by 13th and 14th amendments

According to the US Archives, the Scott v. Sandford decision is regarded by many legal scholars as the “worst ever rendered by the Supreme Court.”

It further mentions that the 13th and 14th amendments “overturned” the ruling, which outlawed slavery and declared that all people born in the United States are citizens.