President Donald Trump Touts Kamala Harris Birther Theory

According to the Constitution, any natural-born US citizen over the age of 35 is eligible to be president or vice president.

Constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky told CBS News the claim about Harris "is a truly silly argument".

"Under section 1 of the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen. The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. Kamala Harris was born in the United States," the dean of UC Berkeley School of Law said in an email to CBS.

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"Some conservatives, such as John Eastman, think that is wrong and being born in the country is not enough," he said.

"(They're) clearly wrong under the language of the 14th Amendment and under Supreme Court precedent."

John Eastman's op-ed was published a day after Democratic challenger Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, the first woman of color tapped by a major party for the post.

Laurence H. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, told the New York Times that Eastman's idea was "total B.S."

"I hadn't wanted to comment on this because it's such an idiotic theory," Laurence Tribe told the paper. "There is nothing to it."

(Writers & Editors: BUR-MTP/GLE, Agence France-Presse)

Source: http://u.afp.com/36kC