Thread: McCain a natural born citizen BECAUSE he was born in Panama?

Clearly this was prompted by the ongoing Obama situation. First of all, realize that this is a theoretical exercise. I always think it's important to understand the law as much as possible. I do, though, wish Congress would clear all this up with legislation to define a natural born citizen for all Constitutional purposes. My personal belief is that it should be defined as all persons who are citizens at birth and should have a...

No foreigners at all! j/k I would prefer to limit "natural born" to those born within the USA. I would also suggest that military, state dept., etc. employees that are pregnant have a right to leave of absence to deliver in the USA. Based upon what you have written, if my wife and I had our children delivered in another country, they might still be eligible for POTUS even if they never spent a single minute living in the USA.

Except for that whole "...and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States" part.

Wait a second, aren't we all born in the canal zone?

no. my sister was delivered via c-section.

Why?

And to think McCain was a Rovian slurr away from becoming the first latino president of the US. Too bad he could not court the latino vote due to his heritage, the xenophobic vote would have abandoned him.

clearly not eligible for president, then. not natural born.

There are two types of citizens: natural born and naturalized. I'm sure McCain's parents obtained a Certificate of Birth Abroad (or whatever the equivalent at the time was) making him a citizen since birth, he didn't have to go through a naturalization process and citizenship test, he was a U.S. citizen from the moment he was born - hence natural born. I've looked into this because I'm in the same boat as McCain. I...

The one deporting y'all back your home countries...?