Nikki Haley is eligible to serve as president, despite false claims

UPDATE (03/06/2024): Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on March 6 after losing all but one primary race on Super Tuesday, leaving former president Donald Trump as the last major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Haley did not endorse Trump during a speech announcing the suspension in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she called on him to bring people into the conservative cause. The story continues as originally published below:

Former President Donald Trump and others online are sharing posts that claim former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is constitutionally ineligible to serve as president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born.

Haley, who also served as South Carolina’s governor, is one of five candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. 

“Nikki Haley is constitutionally ineligible to be president…or vice president,” Roger Stone, Trump’s former political advisor, said on X. That post links to an article claiming Haley is ineligible to be president because of her parents’ citizenship status at her birth.

Trump shared a similar version of the claim on his social media platform Truth Social.

THE QUESTION

Is Nikki Haley ineligible to serve as president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born?

THE SOURCES

• The U.S. Constitution 
• Nikki Haley’s former South Carolina governor campaign website
• Nikki Haley’s biography given to Congress when she was nominated as U.N. ambassador
• Nikki Haley’s autobiography “Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story”
• Nicholas Creel, assistant professor of business law and constitutional law expert at Georgia College and State University
• Robert S. Peck, founder and president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation

THE ANSWER

Nikki Haley was born in the United States, which makes her a natural-born citizen and eligible to serve as president if elected. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Under the U.S. Constitution, there are only three requirements to be president. The person must be a natural-born citizen, be at least 35 years old and be a resident of the U.S. for 14 years. 

Nikki Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina in 1972, according to an old campaign website and her biography given to Congress when she was nominated as U.N. ambassador. 

While the Constitution doesn't expressly define natural-born citizenship, Constitution Annotated, a government website that provides legal analysis and interpretations of the Constitution, says a natural-born citizen has long been interpreted to mean anyone who was a U.S. citizen at birth with no need to go through the naturalization process.

Since Haley was born in South Carolina, is over the age of 35 and has lived in the U.S. for more than 14 years, she is eligible to serve as president. 

According to Haley’s autobiography “Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story” and a South Carolina newspaper report, Haley’s parents were born in the Punjab region of India and became citizens after she was born.

But constitutional law expert Nicholas Creel and Robert Peck, founder and president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, said it doesn’t matter where Haley’s parents were born or when they became citizens. Natural born-citizenship is not based on a parent’s citizenship. 

“The citizenship of her own parents is therefore immaterial to her own citizenship given her place of birth,” Creel, who is also an assistant professor of business law at Georgia College and State University, said. 

Some of the claims, including Trump’s post, reference the 12th Amendment as the basis for Haley’s ineligibility to be president. But that amendment only outlines the process of electing a president – not citizenship requirements.