MCCAIN'S BIRTHPLACE BECOMES A LEGAL ISSUE

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INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - 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 Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic
University who has studied the issue extensively. "It is not a slam-dunk
situation."

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 McCain meets the requirement and note that
the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and
reviewed again this time around. Today in Americas McCain and Obama
trade jabs on Iraq Louisiana governor pierces business as usual McCain's
birthplace prompts queries about whether that rules him out

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore Olson,
a former solicitor general now advising McCain, to prepare a detailed
legal analysis. "I don't have much doubt about it," said Olson, who
added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of McCain's
closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a
military member born in a military station could not run for president.

"He was posted there on orders from the United States government,"
Graham said of 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."

The phrase "natural born" was in early drafts of the Constitution.
Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of
the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from
John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent
foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to
"declare expressly" that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say
legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of McCain, a
longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and
scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by
either Congress or the Supreme Court.

Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others
have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the
national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential
contenders for the Oval Office.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/28/america/28mccain.php

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