This has been brewing around for some time, but The New York Times has a new report on the issue.
Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona, has noticed what many have seemed to overlook.
According to the United States 14th Amendment, it clearly states "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
However, John McCain was NOT born in the US!
McCain was actually born to American parents but in the Panama Canal Zone, not in the US.
According to Prof. Chin, that is not enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement stating that our president must be a “natural-born citizen.”
It wasn't until 1937 that a law was enacted giving children of American parents born after 1904 in the Panama Canal Zone citizenship.
Though, according to Chin, the law came too late to make McCain a natural-born citizen.
Prof. Chin adds, “It’s preposterous that a technicality like this can make a difference in an advanced democracy. But this is the constitutional text that we have.”
Funny. Somehow we're almost certain that if it would have been Obamawho was born in the Canal Zone, the Republicans would have fought to make him ineligible.
And, although several legal experts agree with Prof. Chin's findings, they add that nothing will probably come of it.
Peter Spiro, who focuses on the law of citizenship at Temple University says, “No court will get close to it, and everyone else is on board, so there’s a constitutional consensus, the merits of arguments such as this one aside.”
And, in April, the Senate approved a nonbinding resolution stating that McCain would be eligible to become president. They declared that our founders wouldn't have wanted to decline the offspring of military personnel stationed out of the country the right to presidency.
However, a lawsuit challenging McCain's qualifications is currently pending in the Federal District Court in Concord, N.H.
So, even though the 1937 law made McCain a citizen, it didn't make him one that was naturally born because the citizenship was conferred after his birth.
Sounds all a bit confusing!
What do U think?
1 comment:
I say let it go, because if Obama beat Mccain on a technicality , there would probably a coup. That would be a disaster, I rather just wait and let Obama beat him fair and square, I believe its going to happen.
Post a Comment