Is John McCain Ineligible to be a US President?

John McCain was not born in the United States of America but rather born in Panama to US Citizens while his father served in the navy which appear to eliminate him from serving as President.

Lead it to the New York Times, which last week lambasted McCain over a "female lobbyist" scandal, to place the "birth controversy" fresh in everybody's minds.

For the record, McCain has served his country well.  Should it really matter if a Presidential candidate was actually born in the US or abroad if he has proven his capabilities within the American political scene?  There are many people who would like to see Arnold Schwarzenegger run, and quite frankly, the Republican party probably wishes he was.

With that said, here's what the constitution says regarding eligibility for the Presidency.......
 
"Article 2, Section 1, Clause , 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."
 
The exact definition of  "A natural born Citizen" is unclear as stated in the Constitution but as there were no foreign military bases at the time and with the founding fathers' distaste for foreign intervention being clear it seems unlikely they meant anything other than a person having been born in the United States.
 
The 14th Amendment touches on the same issue and states "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jusrisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States wherein the reside". You'll notice it says "All persons born in the United States"
 
That there are two types of U.S. Citizens....
1) Citizens born in the United States.
2) Naturalized US Citizens.
 
We must presume McCain is the latter as he was clearly not born in the United States (A military base in a foreign country is not soverign US territory.) leaving one to conclude that McCain is actually a 'Naturalized Citizen' and thus ineligible to be either President or Vice President.

“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.”

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.

The New York Times points out that McCain is not the first US politician to have run into this problem.

Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.

It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.
 

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James Madison, Special Contributor to Gambling911.com

Originally published February 11, 2008 8:34 pm EST