Posted on 09/02/2008 1:42:22 AM PDT by Kevmo
John McCain and Barack Obama - Can Either Even Be President? September 2nd, 2008 1:56 am | by Jake4Constitution | Published in Election, Liberty | Comment
Are Senators John McCain and Barack Obama Both Constitutionally Ineligible to be President?
by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published Monday, September 1, 2008 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article4678.html
Unbelievably, this year’s presidential election will be between two candidates who, in a fit of supreme irony in our Constitution-bashing Age, both may be constitutionally ineligible to be President. Both Senators have civil suits pending against them that they are ineligible to run for POTUS. Please note I personally have absolutely no challenge whatsover that they are both US Citizens and at least intend well for the country they are contesting to lead, just that perhaps both do not constitutionally qualify to be President. I also have no pretensions that either civil suit will stop either of them from running and in all likelihood either Senator McCain or The Barackcuda will be coronated in January 2009. However, I have to wonder why in this year of all years, why there cannot be at least one candidate from the major parties where there is no controversy, they were born in Nebraska or New York and grew up there eating corn and hamburgers with two (2) American parents, and that is the end of it. The Washington Times stated on August 28 that “legal scholars say there is no precedent on the subject because all previous presidents have been born within the 50 states or territories that became states.”
Remember part of our founding fathers reasoning in setting the requirements for President. They simply did not want to take a chance of any person with say, an aristocratic European background from a country starting with “Eng-” and ending with “-land,” immigrating to the USA, becoming a citizen and then President. They wanted to reduce as much as possible the chances of President having loyalties to another nation besides the USA. Is this really that out of tune with the modern globalized world? Should we not allow Arnold Schwartzneggar at least the eligibility to become President if he serves California faithfully for many years? I echo the founding fathers when I say “No Freaking Way, Man.” If you start allowing any ex-foreign national or non-natural born citizen to become President, you can not allow yourself to be a hypocrite. How at ease would any of us be, say if a certain ex-Saudi, ex-USSR’er or ex-Pakistani immigrated to the US, became a US citizen, and then President? Sure the odds are against that ever happening in our current I-am-so-petrified-mommy-of-the-scary-terrorists-mommy-please-save-me world in which we live in today, but really though, if you run for President for a party I do not think it would hurt to have an official constitutionality check by a federal court. After all, the presidential oath is to protect and defend the Constitution, so there should be an official check at some point earlier in the process to determine whether the candidate legally qualifies for the office in the first place!
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Is John McCain Constitutionally Eligible to be POTUS?
Well, here is the case for John McCain in brief. The facts are clear, but the law is a bit muddy. John McCain was born from two natural born US citizens on a military base in Panama. He grew up on base after base all over the world in the military empire, switching homes and schools at least 20 times. However, the case for constitutionality simply rests on his birth. The below proof is the most rigorous and detailed that I have come across, and its details can be found here:
The 14th Amendment and matching policy limit citizenship to either natural born or naturalized, but not both. John McCain was born in 1936 in the Canal Zone to citizen parents. 8 USC 1403(a) declares naturalized citizenship in 1952 on persons born in the Canal Zone to citizen parents. Therefore, 8 USC 1403(a) applies to John McCain at age 16. Therefore, John McCain is a naturalized citizen. By treaty, the Canal Zone was not part of the United States. Therefore, John McCain was not born in the United States. Therefore, John McCain is a citizen not born in the United States. Therefore, John McCain is not a natural born citizen. Article II of the Constitution states to be President a person must be a natural born citizen. THEREFORE, John McCain is not eligible to be President of the United States under Article II of the Constitution; he should be decertified and removed from all present and future Presidential ballots; and his past results should be disallowed, including unbinding all of his committed delegates. On August 11, the chairman of California’s American Independent Party (presidential nominee is Ambassador Alan Keyes) sued McCain, the GOP, and the California Secretary of State using the above argument, challenging McCain’s right to place his name on the California ballot in November. The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge William Alsup on 9-11-08. For more details read the August 28 article from the Oakland Tribune here.
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Is Barack Obama Constitutionally Eligible to be POTUS?
The case against Senator Obama is perhaps a bit more convoluted as the basic facts of his birth and life are disputed but the law is fairly clear, plus its politically more interesting. Philadelphia lawyer Philip J. Berg on August 21 filed suit in US District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania against Obama, the Democratic National Committee, and the Federal Election Committee. He stated “filed this action at this time to avoid the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party raises these issues after Obama is nominated.” Note Berg donated money to and is an active supporter of Hillary Clinton. In the past he served as chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery (PA) County, he was a member of the Democratic State Committee, and also was Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania.
The heart of Berg’s lawsuit claims three things.
Senator Obama is not a naturalized citizen and/or Lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia and/or Has dual or conflicting national loyalties because of his citizenship with Kenya and Indonesia. Berg alleges Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate from the state of Hawaii is a forgery per three independent document forensic experts. He alleges Obama was born in Kenya as his mother (Stanley Ann Dunham, aged 18) traveled there with her husband, Barack Obama, a Kenyan national, but was prevented from flying back to Hawaii because of the late stage of her pregnancy. [Wiki trivia: Obama, Sr. and Dunham married in 1961 while Obama, Sr. was still married to his first wife from Kenya, whom he never divorced. Obama, Sr. is dead now, but divorced from Dunham in 1964. So the Barackcuda is literally a son of a bigamist.] Berg claims Obama’s own paternal grandmother, half-brother and half-sister have also claimed the same; that Barack was born in Kenya and his mother subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth. If Obama was truly born in Kenya, Berg claims, the contemporary laws hold that U.S. citizenship may only pass to a child born overseas to a U.S. citizen parent and non-citizen parent if the former was at least 19 years of age. As Ms. Dunham was too young, therefore citizenship could not legally be passed on to him. Therefore Obama could not be registered as a “natural born” citizen and would therefore be ineligible to seek the presidency pursuant to Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution.
[Since Senator Obama was once a constitutional law professor, one might have expected him to publish or have a paper ready defending his citizenship status. And pigs will fly.]
Next, even if Obama is deemed “natural born,” that United States citizenship was lost in or around 1967 when he and his mother took up residency in Indonesia, where Stanley Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen. Berg also states that he possesses copies of Obama’s registration to Fransiskus Assisi School in Jakarta, Indonesia which clearly show that he was registered under the name “Barry Soetoro” and his citizenship listed as Indonesian. I surmise Berg’s intent is that after this time period Obama never officially regained US citizenship is ineligible to be POTUS, but perhaps its just to suggest conflicting nationalist loyalities. Either way, Wow. Lolo Soetoro and Dunham divorced in 1980 and both are now dead.
Berg alleges Obama has used multiple names throughout his life such as “Barack Hussein Obama,” “Barry Soetoro,” “Barry Obama,” “Barack Dunham,” and “Barry Dunham.” He then charges that Obama lied on his Illinois bar exam where he failed to acknowledge the use of any other name. Berg concludes that at the very least there is still the issue of multi-citizenship with responsibilities owed to and allegiance to other countries.
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In Closing
What is correct? What is right? Decide for yourself. I do favor clear and open federal court proceedings on both cases. As one will likely become POTUS, the mandate from the Electoral College will be tainted if this wound is allowed to fester. Their reign will be compromised from the start if this critical issue is not dealt with in an honest and public manner. As is often the case in our two-party democracy, when the “chief of the successful partisans” steps into power, the losing side will whine incessantly about how they lost. What hope do the American people have of their President obeying his oath to defend the Constitution if they see these candidates brush these claims under the carpet or act in a dishonest manner in defiance of the rule of law? Why must I feel that even I, by writing a simple column, am doing a better job of championing the Constitution?
Here is Tom Paine from the post-Revolutionary War world of 1782. He was referring to the European powers of his day but, sadly, I believe his comments apply to our America:
“[The purpose] of other nations are, in general, little more than the history of their quarrels. They are marked by no important character in the annals of events; mixed in the mass of general matters, they occupy but a common page; and while the chief of the successful partisans stepped into power, the plundered multitude sat down and sorrowed. Triumph on one side and misery on the other were the only events. Pains, punishments, torture, and death were made the business of mankind, until compassion, the fairest associate of the heart, was driven from its place, and the eye, accustomed to continual cruelty, could behold it without offence.
But as the principles of the present Revolution differed from those which preceded it, so likewise did the conduct of America both in government and war. Neither the foul finger of disgrace has hitherto put a blot upon her fame. War, so much the trade of the world, has here only been the business of necessity; and when the necessity shall cease, her very enemies must confess, that as she drew the sword in her just defence, she used it without cruelty, and sheathed it without revenge.”
I have a confession to make. Obama or McCain, McBama, whatever, it really doesn’t matter to me. If you read my articles, you will find out why and also why a new Revolution has begun. My only question is will you join me?
In Liberty,
Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
www.CampaignForLiberty.com
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings in part or full of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.
Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.
“When the truth walks away, Everybody stays! Because the truth about the world is that crime does pay!
So if you walk away, Who is gonna stay? Because I’d like to think the world is a better place!”
- from Offspring’s song “Have You Ever.”
There you are! Thank you N&V! I had to leave and could find Gatun’s name fast enough to ping this morning.
bump
Subparagraphy b doesn’t specify natural born though.
Read post #38.
Read that little bothersome “place of birth” thing.
It reads “Colon, Panama.”
And frankly, I still don’t like McCain any better than I did yesterday, or last month, or last year.
I do like his VP choice. Maybe the VP will become our president when McCain is thrown out on his ear.
LLS
I suspect this election will be all about the Veeps.
Hillary will knock Obama out (Kenyan BC) and have her royal self appointed as the VP (No sooner than McCain-Feingold kicks in, possibly as late as after his coronation to avoid that pesky election thang)
She will replace the Late Joe Biden one day after the midpoint in his term.
McCain only gets my vote because I can hope he’ll leave office early and we’ll have Sarah as the President.
>>>You will have better luck proving the existence of Bigfoot rather than this hype.
Allow me to tell you about a blind date I was on once....
;)
You said you wouldn’t tell..
B. Hussein and John Sidney McCain both have a problem re this issue. These questions should be dealt with now rather than later so they can be put behind us.
Agreed!
DEMOCRAT Sen Claire McCaskill tried to get a bill passed to specifically cover children of active duty military born abroad under the term 'natural born citizen' specifically for her good friend the maverick McCain.
Obama tried to get it broadened to include any descendant of any military personnel (like his grandfather).
That would have covered them both.
The bill didn't pass as a law, only as a 'sense of the senate'.
As if the senate has a lick of sense...
...it was the best date I ever had.
;)
The only way McCain could lose over this is through rogue ‘supreme’ court justices in the tradition of Kelo. It is a possibility.
***The fact that it is even a possibility saddens me. We do not have a Free Republic.
Please refrain from abusing the Activism sidebar.
***This isn’t activism? Honestly, truly, really, I thought it was and I still do. It is not an abuse of a sidebar, this is an issue of definition. Please, where do Freepers go to find an accurate definition of activism that would exclude this level of discussion of election politics? I have no intention of abusing any sidebar. My intention is to call to action on this issue, and in a decade of Freeping I have seen issues on this sidebar that are far more of an abuse of activism than this issue. We need Freepers and conservatives to FILE LAWSUITS in 50 STATES over this constitutional issue. If that does not qualify as a request for activism, then I am at a loss. I know that JimRob is in the hospital or recovering (prayers up), but I am cc’ing him on this because it is important to me.
Oh my gosh, that is some of the finest writing I’ve seen on Free Republic in a while. Yer mom would be proud.
Excellent. And I agree with what you wrote.
I shudder to think of what you would have written if he’d mentioned the Loch Ness Monster.
Obama tried to get it broadened to include any descendant of any military personnel (like his grandfather).
***Any enterprising reporter would ask his Obamaship about the reasoning behind this, and follow up with the obvious issue about his ineligibility. But the MSM no longer has enterprising reporters, even supposedly right-wing media.
Thanks Kevmo.
Pinging The List.
It's so much easier to publish press releases as actual news.
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