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"Natural born"
Jul. 27th, 2009 08:36 amJosh, you write:
"To indulge this nonsense you have to believe there are two categories of citizen -- one that is born a citizen (abroad) but not 'natural born' and another that is born a citizen (in the USA) and is 'natural born.'
How about US military families serving in Europe or South Korea? Are their children ineligible to serve as president? And wouldn't that be a tad rough on military families if it were true? Remember, this question came up during the last election since Sen. McCain was actually born in the Panama Canal Zone."
Indeed.
Yet that is exactly what I was taught in high school in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We in fact used to joke about it, since there were some in my class who were born at a military base in Germany. The only exception presented was if one was born abroad, but on land that was subject to US jurisdiction through extraterritoriality -- an embassy, say.
Or, notably, the Canal Zone. The wrinkle for McCain, though, was the relevant law passed by Congress (8 USC 1403) was enacted in 1937, when Mr. McCain was already a year old. Tough to see how one can be "natural born" when it took an act of Congress to confer citizenship on one post facto.
So, some non-race-based explanations for the fuss:
* Because there was some ripple about McCain's adherence to the letter of the Constitution, the all-too-observably thin-skinned among the Republicans just see this as tit-for-tat. Think of this as the "Bork" hypothesis.
* My experience of being taught the "must be born within US borders" interpretation of "natural born" was not unique. This would mean some people have thought this the valid interpretation for decades, and then a bunch of smart alecs come along saying it isn't so. I note said teaching could be argued to be an artifact of the time (law libraries were few and far between) and its rebuttal is an artifact of our own (legal texts being readily available to every person with an internet connection). Think of this as the "You meddling kids! I've known how the world works on this topic for years! Stop confusing me!" hypothesis.
"To indulge this nonsense you have to believe there are two categories of citizen -- one that is born a citizen (abroad) but not 'natural born' and another that is born a citizen (in the USA) and is 'natural born.'
How about US military families serving in Europe or South Korea? Are their children ineligible to serve as president? And wouldn't that be a tad rough on military families if it were true? Remember, this question came up during the last election since Sen. McCain was actually born in the Panama Canal Zone."
Indeed.
Yet that is exactly what I was taught in high school in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We in fact used to joke about it, since there were some in my class who were born at a military base in Germany. The only exception presented was if one was born abroad, but on land that was subject to US jurisdiction through extraterritoriality -- an embassy, say.
Or, notably, the Canal Zone. The wrinkle for McCain, though, was the relevant law passed by Congress (8 USC 1403) was enacted in 1937, when Mr. McCain was already a year old. Tough to see how one can be "natural born" when it took an act of Congress to confer citizenship on one post facto.
So, some non-race-based explanations for the fuss:
* Because there was some ripple about McCain's adherence to the letter of the Constitution, the all-too-observably thin-skinned among the Republicans just see this as tit-for-tat. Think of this as the "Bork" hypothesis.
* My experience of being taught the "must be born within US borders" interpretation of "natural born" was not unique. This would mean some people have thought this the valid interpretation for decades, and then a bunch of smart alecs come along saying it isn't so. I note said teaching could be argued to be an artifact of the time (law libraries were few and far between) and its rebuttal is an artifact of our own (legal texts being readily available to every person with an internet connection). Think of this as the "You meddling kids! I've known how the world works on this topic for years! Stop confusing me!" hypothesis.
