McCain not natural born?

[Kuciwalker]

Legally it's irrelevant. No one will challenge it and the courts would definitely interpret the constitution in a way that doesn't derail an ongoing presidential election.

[germanos]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Point Two: Prof. Chin assumes the statute did not confer natural-born citizenship retroactively. Why would Congress see a problem but fix it only for children who were to be born after the statute passed?

Because laws can never be implemented retro-actively.

[Zkribbler]

Can too.

Rights cannot be taken away retroactively. However, words and phrases can be re-defined (e.g. natural-born) in order to retroactively grant MORE rights.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by germanos


Because laws can never be implemented retro-actively.

I'm pretty sure that's not true in general; however, previous actions can't be criminalized.

edit: Actually, hmm... that all depends on interpretation of the constitution. You might be right.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Legally it's irrelevant. No one will challenge it and the courts would definitely interpret the constitution in a way that doesn't derail an ongoing presidential election.

Well to be fair, the only person in the whole of the US who would have standing to file suit in this matter would be Obama. Somehow I don't see that happening though.

[Aeson]

I voted "no - other" to "see the question at the end of the post".

[Dr Strangelove]

I thought that citizeneship is automatic if your parents are citizens? Would the child of an American ambassador who was born outside of the United States be denied the chance to run for President?

There are parts of the Constitution that no one really cares about. For instance the Constitution forbids Amercians from serving in foreign governments, yet Golda Meir held a seat in the Israeli Knesset for nearly a decade and retained her US citizenship, surrendering it only upon being sworn in as Prime Minister.

[Will9]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I thought that citizeneship is automatic if your parents are citizens? Would the child of an American ambassador who was born outside of the United States be denied the chance to run for President?

There are parts of the Constitution that no one really cares about. For instance the Constitution forbids Amercians from serving in foreign governments, yet Golda Meir held a seat in the Israeli Knesset for nearly a decade and retained her US citizenship, surrendering it only upon being sworn in as Prime Minister.

In the OP I said that the law at the time the law was that citizenship would only be granted to the children of US citizens who were born beyond the "limits and jurisdiction" of the United States. The Panama Canal Zone was definatly within United States jurisdiction, so the law didn't apply to McCain.

[SlowwHand]

As is any U.S. military installation. If the birth occurs at the base hospital, as it would be generally be expected, that's American soil.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
There are parts of the Constitution that no one really cares about. For instance the Constitution forbids Amercians from serving in foreign governments, yet Golda Meir held a seat in the Israeli Knesset for nearly a decade and retained her US citizenship, surrendering it only upon being sworn in as Prime Minister.

Er, this makes no sense. The Knesset is not the government.. She was, however, Foreign Minister for nearly a decade, if that's what you mean.

[Kuciwalker]

Government means a different thing on this side of the pond. Legislators are considered part of it.

[Winston]

But.. "serving in foreign governments" (if that is the actual wording) surely would mean being part of the executive branch? (Which she also was, as already acknowledged.)

This is getting complicated.

[Kuciwalker]

In normal modern American usage, basically anyone in any branch of the federal government would be said to be "serving in government". Any legislator, any judge, any executive official. Government means the entire federal apparatus.

I don't know what the meaning would have been in the late 18th century, though.

[Winston]

Ok, thanks.

Apparently, I was an idiot.

[Kuciwalker]

It's a fairly common misunderstanding between Americans and Europeans, in both directions.