John McCain ineligible for U.S. Presidency

John McCain ineligible for U.S. Presidency

www.iht.com

Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure 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 that 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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! Just wow! How does a guy not born in this country even get on the ballot? McCain says his citizenship is completely legitimate, but the Panama Canal Zone is certainly not part of the U.S. Here is some information from both sides of this develpoing argument about McCain's citizenship

1. Factcheck.org:Though born abroad, he is considered a natural-born U.S. citizen.
John McCain's father was an admiral in the U.S. Navy who was stationed in Panama in 1936, when McCain was born. This has led to speculation as to whether McCain is a U.S. citizen and whether he can be elected president, a question that was raised during McCain's run for the Republican nomination in 2000 as well.

Section 1, Article II of the U.S. Constitution states:

Article II: “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.”

But McCain is a natural-born citizen, even though he was not born within this country's borders, since his parents were citizens at the time of his birth. As a Congressional Act stated in 1790 and another reaffirmed in 1795:

Congress: "And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens."

The State Department says that this law is again honored under section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

2. Clevelandleader.com: There is no true definition of a " natural born citizen"

To date, no law or court ruling has ever actually established the official or precise definition of what is a "natural born citizen". However, it is typically agreed that a natural born citizen is one who is born in any of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia.

I also wonder whether this is why Mike Huckabee has stayed in the race. I have read that this was discussed during the 2000 race, but was never really addressed because he was not the nominee. Perhaps Huckabee's "miracle" will be a bias decision by the conservative Supreme Court to make Huckabee the nominee. This will be an interesting story to follow.




www.iht.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm not sure where the post is, but either here or the politics forum this was debunked.Found it

[edit on 28-2-2008 by Mekanic]

As Mekanic pointed out, there is already another thread on this topic:

John McCain was born in Panama.

Please continue all discussion in the above thread, and if you don't want anymore of your threads shut down, read the section about repeat topics in this link.

Closed.