Maryland Bar Bulletin Publications : Bar Bulletin : August 2010
When a foreign-born child is born out of wedlock, the child has
a much better chance of acquiring citizenship if his or her
mother is an American citizen than if the father is the one with
a U.S. passport. This law seems premised on little more than the
notion that mothers are the ones who should and will take care
of the children, and that fathers do not take as much
responsibility for raising their offspring. Many people see this
as blatant gender discrimination.  Generally, people are born
U.S. citizens if they are born in the U.S. or born to U.S.
citizens. Senator John McCain was born to U.S. citizens in the
Panama Canal Zone, but was eligible to run for President as a
“natural born” citizen. Another example is President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who was born in Canada to U.S. citizen parents. For
the child to be considered a United States citizen “at birth,”
the U.S. citizen parent had to have been physically present in
the United States for