McCain's Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

New York Slimes ^ | February 28, 2008 | Carl Hulse

[Kaslin]

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

[FlingWingFlyer]

"... his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate..."

Poster #3's U.S.C. post knocks the "musty debate" in the head. Forget about it. McCain is a U.S. citizen.

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.

I don't see the part about needing to have been born United States soil.

[ncalburt]

nicely done

[rabscuttle385]

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

Note well that Senator Graham is far too busy telling foreign nationals that if they break our immigration laws, they get a nice reward: their kid is not only entitled to government benefits but even the right to become President of the most powerful State in the world.

[freespirited]

If McCain didn’t have to do anything to gain citizenship rights (the way a person who becomes naturalized does) then he must have been a natural-born citizen and this article is even stupider than the last one.

Which I would not have thought possible.

[FocusNexus]

Obama was born in Hawaii.

[Salvation]

Haven’t we been here before?

[Diver Dave]

I’m looking at this whole thing from a different aspect.

The NYT couldn’t give a rip about McCain. They and the ACLU see this as an opportunity to apply the US Naval Base in the Canal Zone as part of the USA. They will then twist that same ruling to declare Gitmo is legally USA. They will then attempt to change the status of the Gitmo prisoners so that they will get access to US Judicial courts vs Military Tribunals.

Just a theory for what it’s worth. Call me crazy.

[jws3sticks]

I just picked up the profile from the web.

I've heard and read the statements about Islam but I don't know it to be true.

Given your reply:

Please prove it or back off!

The only thing I favor BO is that he is pushing HRC off the map, and nothing more.

Just wondering from where you are coming from?

[ApplegateRanch]

And Ohio --SEVEN presidents were born there, starting with Useless Grant-- was not offiically ratified for admission to the union until 1953. It was BACKDATED to the old date. Legally, until 1953 it was [maybe] a TERRITORY, then suddenly was declared to have been a state since 1803, via the Bender Act.

Legal error? Undoubtedly, people go to (or stay out of) jail every day due to legal errors.

They really would not want to open this question, if it were a real question, rather than simple $h!t-stirring.

The 1 March 1803 date of Admission to Statehood has only been official since the adoption of the Bender Ohio Statehood Act of 7 August 1953; the rest of the [specious?] story

[ApplegateRanch]

I blew the link above

[Zack Attack]

This is easy stuff, and the NYT knows it. McCain was born at a US military base of two American citizen parents...that makes him a natural born American citizen.

Yes, the NYT knows it. I get the feeling that this is setting up something completely outside the bounds of the context of this story. Perhaps trying lay a foundation for a challenge that any US citizen should be able to run for president. Ahnold? or someone else? Thoughts?

[Brad from Tennessee]

Martin Van Buren was the first president born in the United States. All previous presidents were born on British territory.

[Former War Criminal]

This has got to be bogus. If John McCain were not an American citizen, the North Vietnamese would’ve let him go after they fished him out of that lake in Hanoi.

[Caipirabob]

McCain's Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

If only...there was a momentary flash of hope but,...NEXT!

[pallis]

The NYT’s attacks on McCain must be coming from the McCain campaign. They are galvanizing him against anything serious that might be coming down the road, possibly something they know about already. This stuff is just too easy, too Clintonesque in nature, setting up a straw man to knock down. Everyone has gone on the assumption that the NYT is just leading off the inevitable MSM assault on McCain, but the opposite seems more likely. McCain may be their choice of Democrats.

[Joe Boucher]

Desperate or not I’m hoping he is disqualified.

[cbkaty]

8 U.S.C. § 1403. Persons born in the Canal Zone or Republic of Panama on or after February 26, 1904 (a) Any person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this chapter, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States. (b) Any person born in the Republic of Panama on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this chapter, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States employed by the Government of the United States or by the Panama Railroad Company, or its successor in title, is declared to be a citizen of the United States.

Nowhere does this state specifically "natural born citizen"...it states citizen. Arnold Schwarzeneger is a citizen...but NOT a Natural Born Citizen....

[Grampa Dave]

[Kaslin]

If Obama (b. 1961) had been born 2 years earlier, he would have exactly the same problem as McCain.

He probably wouldn't qualify then because his mother was a civilian and his father was from Kenia

[Jeff Head]

He was born of US parents...he is a natural born citizen. Arnold was not, therefore he is not. If you are born of a US citizen parent then you are a nAtural born citizen.

Congress first extended citizenship to children born to U.S. parents overseas on March 26, 1790, under the first naturalization law:

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