Despite Being Born in Panama, is John McCain Eligible to Be President?
There has been some discussion about John McCain’s eligibility to be president. As we all know, a president of the United States MUST be a natural born citizen. John McCain, however, was born August 29, 1936 to two U.S. citizens in the Panama Canal Zone
The US Constitution states, “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.” On http://www.dailypaul.com/node/31019 Ron Paul, a strict constitionalist, states, “It is generally agreed that a natural born citizen of the United States is any person born in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia.
This brings up and interesting point. Is John McCain ineligible? Based on the criteria mentioned above, it would seem the answer is yes. But let’s examine further.
First, it can be argued that the Panama Canal Zone was controlled by the U.S. at the time of McCain’s birth and therefore he was U.S. citizen. The canal was birthed out of a desire for the U.S. to have better naval access both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In a treaty negotiated with Britain, it was agreed that the U.S., alone, would build and regulate the canal. The canal was opened in 1920 and, according to http://www.panamacanal-cruises.com/panama-canal-history/beginnings.html, “for much of its history, the canal and the surrounding Panama Canal Zone were run as a colony of the United States.” Therefore, although Dr. Paul is correct that most people think of natural born citizens as those born in the 50 states plus D.C., since it is not specified in the Constitution, one could successfully argue that a person born in a U.S. colony could be considered natural born.
Second, and perhaps the stronger of the two arguments, let’s examine the constitution and U.S. Code. The U.S. Constitution actually defines citizenship as, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” However, as http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_citi.html puts it, “As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps.” So let’s go to the law or U.S. Code.
The U.S. Code is a compilation of general and permanent laws that have been codified and organized to make finding statues and ruling simpler. Title 8, Section 1401 defines “citizens of the United States at birth” as those people who are:
Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.
These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example.” (as summarized by above site).
A person who meets one of these criteria is therefore considered to be natural-born. It follows that they are then eligible to run for President or Vice President.
Therefore, according to rule number three above, John McCain is indeed considered to be a natural-born citizen. Since he is clearly over the age of 35 and as lived in the U.S. for more than 14 years, he is qualified and eligible to run for President or Vice-President of the United States.
