McCain's birthplace in Panama Canal Zone raises eligibility questions

[Shama-Lama Ding Dong]

Because he was born is Australia.

His middle name proves this is true.

It is SIDNEY.

John SIDNEY McCain
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[35Pete]

Holy crap. Think he might be an aborigine?

That might make him a savage!

John SIDNEY McCain

[SabresAllTheWay]

<dl class="byline">By Carl Hulse |New York Times<dd>2:14 AM CST, February 28, 2008
</dd></dl>WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

McCain's likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a "natural-born citizen" can hold the nation's highest office.

<!-- google ads --> Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
<!-- END topix links -->
<!-- END rail --> "There are powerful arguments that Sen. McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent," said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. "It is not a slam-dunk situation."

McCain was born on a military installation in the canal zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed at the time. His campaign advisers say they are very comfortable that McCain meets the requirement and note that it was researched for his first bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around. But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor-general who is advising McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. "I don't have much doubt about it," said Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his legal research.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and one of McCain's closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president. "He was posted there on orders from the United States government," Graham said. "If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can't be president if they take an overseas assignment."

The phrase "natural born" was included in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to "declare expressly" that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.

Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that those Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.

"They ought to have the same rights," said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. "There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what natural-born citizen means."

McCain's situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare McCain goes more to the interpretation of the archaic phrase "natural born" when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.

McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But he did not win and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.

It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.

Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a naturalization law that did define children of citizens "born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born." But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation, which omitted the natural-born phrase.

McCain's citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the canal zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence

"I don't think he has any problem whatsoever," said Nickles, a McCain supporter. "But I wouldn't be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win."

Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.

In a paper written 20 years ago for Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be "unpredictable and unsatisfactory."

"If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain," Pryor said in a recent interview. "But it is certainly not a frivolous issue."






http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-mccain-birthplacefeb28,0,6597433.story

[nehemiah]

:rofl:

nehemiah loves it.

[SabresAllTheWay]

Section 1. Article 2 of the United States Constitution


The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representatives from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--''I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.''

[Shama-Lama Ding Dong]

John Billabong McCokeCain

[SabresAllTheWay]

http://buffalorange.com/showthread.php?t=134107

[ckg68]

And,sadly,an alleged news network ran with this crap for a good part of today....

[Gibby]

When you were born in the canal zone before the handover of the canal to the Panamanians you were born on American territory and thus you are an American. Nice try but this is as much bullshit as saying "duh..... I not gonna vote for the brown one caus he be called Hussein obama."

[Gibby]

Oh and McCain has been a resident of the US for far more than fourteen years. He is not getting my vote and oddly enough neither is Obama but the stupid shit being slung around the past few days and weeks is hardly why. I won't vote for either gentleman because they are both equally worthless.

[nehemiah]

fantastic!

[dilbert]

This has to be one of the dumbest invented "controversies" in this upcomign election.

There is no issue with his status.

[dilbert]

:rofl:

nehemiah loves it.


You gotta explain why.....

[Shama-Lama Ding Dong]

Hey nehe please correct my misspelling in this thread title ... eligibility..... thx

[TheGoodShepherd]

Sidney sounds like a a girls name...is McCain really a woman or is he gay?

OMG middle names should totally be election issues.

[JLB]

lmao he's eligible sorry boys.

[35Pete]

This has to be one of the dumbest invented "controversies" in this upcomign election.

There is no issue with his status.

Wait until next election.

There will be a scandal that one of the candidates actually shows favor for a certain Survivor tribe.

How can he govern America if he shows preference?

Lead story on the news in 2012.

[Gibby]

Wait until next election.

There will be a scandal that one of the candidates actually shows favor for a certain Survivor tribe.

How can he govern America if he shows preference?

Lead story on the news in 2012.

Fortunately I'll be a Canadian citoyen by that time.

[slowpokemcgee]

And,sadly,an alleged news network ran with this crap for a good part of today....

The key word there is alleged. So I'm gonna guess CNN or Fox News.

[TigerJ]

Looking at the intent of the framers of the constitution, (to render ineligible anyone who because of foreign birth might not be loyal to the US) I don't think the Supreme Court would rule ineligible children of US citzens born outside the US. However, I suppose it would be a benefit to actually have the Supreme Court rule on it so it can be finally put to rest for future generations.