From Yankee Doodle:
Marco Rubio is not a natural born citizen and therefore not eligible to be Vice President of the United States according to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which states:
"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
Neither of Marco Rubio's parents were citizens of the United States at the time of his birth. A natural born citizen is a person born to parents who are both citizens of the United States at birth. In fact, Rubio's parents did not want to stay in the US, but were loyal to Cuba and wanted to return. Rubio was born a Cuban citizen, as both of his parents were citizens of Cuba, not the United States, at the time of his birth.
The US Supreme Court ruled:
"The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners." Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162.
The common law nomenclature regarding "natural-born citizen" with which the framers of the Constitution were familiar is found in "The Law of Nations", published in 1758. The language in this source document is apparent in the decision of the US Supreme Court. The Law of Nations was in the possession of the framers of the Constitution and the first Congress. Its language is used in nearly all US federal law regarding citizenship in the US.
"The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights... The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent... in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country." Vattel, The Law of Nations, 1758.
