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| Volume 107, No. 1 (September 2008) |
An Online Symposium on
Senator John McCain and Natural Born Citizenship |
| Senator John McCain, the current Republican Party nominee for President, was
born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. The circumstances of his birth raise
the question of whether he is a "natural born citizen" as required by
Article II, section 1 of the Constitution. The symposium contributors
explore both the substance of this issue and the methods used to resolve it.
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Why Senator John McCain Cannot be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship [HTML] [PDF]
Gabriel J. Chin, University of Arizona Law School
Article II, section 1 of the Constitution provides that “No Person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President . . . .” A person must be a citizen at birth to be a natural born citizen. Senator McCain was born in the Canal Zone in 1936. Although he is now a U.S. citizen, the law in effect in 1936 did not grant him citizenship at birth. Because he was not born a citizen, he is not eligible to the office of president.  |
Originalism and the Natural Born Citizen Clause [HTML] [PDF]
Lawrence B. Solum, University of Illinois Law School
The enigmatic phrase “natural born citizen” poses a series of problems for contemporary originalism. New Originalists, like Justice Scalia, focus on the original public meaning of the constitutional text. The notion of a “natural born citizen” was likely a term of art derived from the idea of a “natural born subject” in English law—a category that most likely did not extend to persons, like Senator McCain, who were born outside sovereign territory. But the Constitution speaks of “citizens” and not “subjects,” introducing uncertainties and ambiguities that might (or might not) make McCain eligible for the presidency. |
The Justiciability of Eligibility: May Courts Decide Who Can Be President? [HTML] [PDF]
Daniel P. Tokaji, The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
The 2008 election cycle has been a busy one for legal disputes over the qualifications of presidential candidates, with federal cases having been filed to challenge both major candidates’ eligibility under the “natural born Citizen” clause. These cases unquestionably present vital questions of constitutional law, touching on matters of self-evident national importance. It is doubtful, however, that they are justiciable in lower federal courts. Standing requirements and the political question doctrine make it unlikely that a federal court will reach the merits in cases of the type filed to date. |
McCain’s Citizenship and Constitutional Method [HTML] [PDF]
Peter J. Spiro, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Many things may obstruct John McCain’s path to the White House, but his citizenship status is not among them. The question of his eligibility, given the circumstances of his birth, has already been resolved. That outcome has been produced by actors outside the courts. . . . If non-judicial actors—including Congress, editorialists, leading members of the bar, and the People themselves—manage to generate a constitutional consensus, there isn’t much that the courts can do about it. In cases such as this one, at least, that seems to be an acceptable method of constitutional determination. |
Why John McCain Was a Citizen at Birth [HTML] [PDF]
Stephen E. Sachs
Senator John McCain was born a citizen in 1936. Professor Gabriel J. Chin challenges this view in this Symposium, arguing that McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone (while his father was stationed there by the Navy) fell into a loophole in the governing statute. The best historical evidence, however, suggests that this loophole is an illusion and that McCain is a “natural born Citizen” eligible to be president. |
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