Friday, March 28, 2008

McCain is a Citizen and thus can be President

Hopefully this will kill the story that just seems to never die...has John McCain been a citizen his whole life? Okay, so the back story to this is: Senator McCain was not born in America. He was born on a U.S. naval base in the Pama Canal Zone in 1936. Due to this some people have come to the conclusion that McCain has not been a citizen his whole life and thus can not be President.
(Believe me I get phone calls concerning this issue at my internship all the time...)

This potential problem for Senator McCain was reviewed my former Solicitor General Ted Olson (a McCain supporter) and a Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (a Obama supporter). They found that the phrase "natural born citizen" is an unclear term in the Constitution. Though only a "natural born citizen" can become president it is unclear what the founding fathers meant by that term. The Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. territory when McCain was born, his was stationed while serving in the Navy and his mother was an U.S. citizen. Thus the two person panel found that Senator McCain can serve as President if elected.

So now can we please get back to issues? Like how McCain has said on several occasions that Iran is training Al-Qaeda or that he thinks we should stay in Iraq 100 years...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would very much like to read Olson's and Tribe's review, but it is unavailable. Tribe asked the McCain people to post it, but there is no sign of it. Olson's law firm gives his email astolson@gibsondunn.com.

I hold that McCain is natural born by virtue of birth to US citizens.

But the issue has never been resolved by the Supreme Court, so it is not going to die. If you can get the olson-tribe opinion, please post it.