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To: Leifur
Seems to be if he will not pursuit his sport career all the time he can become a prominent politician (like many political family heirs), either in Britain, the US or even South Africa.

It's not an either-or. JC Watts, Jack Kemp, Connie Mack and Byron White took sports scholarships to get an education, and used sports fame to get into politics. I'm sure I've forgotten others. And that's just in the US.

One question about the born in the US rule. If he is born as an american citizen with american parents, can´t he still not become president because he was not born on US soil? What is then considered US soil? How about all the protectorates in the Pacific, or a military base overseas or something like that?

Difficult to say, exactly, because it's never been tested in court. The general consensus is that if you're born a US citizen on territory controlled by the US, you're in. Possibly a US embassy or military installation -- it's never come up. Some folks claimed that Barry Goldwater wasn't eligible to be president because Arizona was a territory, not a state, when he was born there. Few constitutional scholars took that argument very seriously.

What the Constitution says literally is this:

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.

According to the annotations in the USCA version of the Constitution, the common-law definition of "natural born" would pretty much mean that anyone born to a US citizen anywhere would be eligible. Under the prevailing interpretation of the 14th amendment, anyone born in the US, regardless of their parents' citizenship, is a natural-born citizen. So the only people excluded are non-citizens and naturalized citizens.

68 posted on 12/24/2007 1:43:23 AM PST by ReignOfError
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To: scott says; mainepatsfan; thefactor

Gridiron ping...


69 posted on 12/24/2007 1:50:51 AM PST by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: ReignOfError

Wonder if natural-born citizens include turkey baster and cloned citizens?

Might be an interesting Supreme Court case.


72 posted on 12/24/2007 9:37:31 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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