US Supreme Court to Conference on Obama's Presidential Eligibility, page 8

Originally posted by stander
Sec.305. [8 U.S.C.] 1405 still lacks the defining term "natural born citizen" required for the elegibility to become US President.

From all the reading I've been doing about this subject, any addition to US Code or legislation defining the meaning of "natural born citizen" would be unconstitutional.

The only way this would be possible would be through a Constitutional Amendment.

John McCain hasn't been issued any document stating that he became a naturalized citizen of the United States of A. What is his nationality, then?

Well, in theory when John McCain was born he received Panamanian nationality by jus soli.

I say in theory because I do not know how Panama's laws or constitution work, but usually if you are living in some country and you have residence there (as this was the case for the McCains), your child will receive the nationality of that country.

Some countries however make some restrictions, so we'd have to look into Panama's law or constitution.
Anyway, I don't think that is very important, since in 1952, with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of that year, when John McCain was 16, the US declared that people born to US parents in the Panama Canal Zone since from 1904 on, were US citizens.

At this point, my guess is that John McCain had dual citizenship. At least from a legal standpoint, not sure how that was reflected in his papers, and I admit that I have not looked into it.

But since John McCain doesn't live in Panama, and haven't in a long long time, my guess would be that he lost his Panamanian citizenship.

For instance, the laws regarding nationality in Kenya when Obama was born, Kenya was still a colony of the United Kingdom and United Kingdom Colony code applied. In this code any child born to a United Kingdom and Colonies citizen (Obama Sr.), would automatically receive United Kingdom and Colonies (UKC) citizenship, even if the child was born somewhere else.

If he was born in Hawaii, at the time of his birth, he had dual citizenship because of this fact. Shortly after, Kenya declared independence and this code would no longer apply, and the new Kenyan Constitution prohibited that adults have dual citizenship, so at this point Obama lost his Kenyan citizenship.

I have no doubt that John McCain is a US citizen, and so is Barack Obama. From my understanding however, John McCain is not a "natural born citizen", but a naturalized US citizen since his citizenship was declared.

edit: corrections and clarifications

[edit on 21-11-2008 by danx]