Also known as: born
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An adjective from Latin denoting that a person or animal has been born alive.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Naveen Nanda is delivered in a hospital in New York to noncitizen parents. Because he is natus in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction, he acquires United States citizenship at birth and may reside in the state of his parents' choice without further naturalization steps.
Nikhil Narayan, a citizen by birth, votes in a foreign election while visiting relatives abroad. The State Department treats the vote as automatic expatriation, but because he remains natus a citizen and never voluntarily relinquished that status, the attempted revocation is invalid and his passport must be restored.
Navarro Industries contracts to sell a herd of cattle to Norton Bank as collateral. The security agreement expressly covers livestock natus or unborn, so the bank's perfected interest attaches to calves born after the loan closes even though the animals were not yet in existence at the time of the filing.
Norman Nash dies leaving an estate to his daughter Noelle North. Noelle is natus two days before her father's death but survives him by only ninety hours. Because she fails to meet the 120-hour survival period, she is deemed to have predeceased him and her share passes to alternate heirs.
Nia Nkosi is born in the United States to two citizen parents and later seeks the presidency. Because she is natus a citizen under the constitutional qualifications, she satisfies the eligibility clause even though her parents briefly resided abroad during her infancy.
New Horizon Media arranges for a gestational surrogate to carry a child conceived through assisted reproduction. The child is natus to the surrogate, so parentage is determined under the applicable state parentage statute rather than by the genetic contributors alone.
At common law, homicide requires the killing of a human being who has been born alive. Injury to a fetus before live birth does not constitute homicide, but if the child is born alive and later dies from prenatal injury, homicide liability may attach.
All persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens. The status of being natus in the country therefore confers citizenship at birth without regard to the parents' citizenship.
An individual born before the decedent's death who fails to survive the decedent by 120 hours is deemed to have predeceased the decedent. Clear and convincing evidence is required to establish that the person natus before death survived the required period.
…1 of the Fourteenth Amendment contains three references to "person." The first, in defining "citizens," speaks of "persons born or naturalized in the United States." The word also appears both in the Due Process Clause and in the Equal Protection Clause. "Person" is used in other places in the Constitution: in the…