"No person except a natural born citizen..."

07 January 2016

"No person except a natural born citizen..."

"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." US Constitution

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It is not a legal bar for office as president of the US for someone to be a dual, triple, or even quadruple citizen of various countries. The possession of passports from other countries is also not a legal bar to office.

To be a dual, etc. citizen would undoubtedly cause many nationalist Americans to abstain from voting for a particular candidate. IMO that is why Cruz dumped his Canadian citizenship 18th months ago.

IMO the US Constitution should be amended to remove the "natural born citizen" language. This language bars naturalized Americans from the presidency no matter how long they have been citizens and no matter what their service to the country may have been. Two examples of such people would be Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan (brought to the US as a baby), and Arnie Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California.

This restriction on the office was understandable in the beginning of the Republic when the possibility of counter-revolution led from abroad was real but the restriction no longer is sensible. pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_5:_Qualifications_for_office

Posted at 11:48 AM in government | Permalink

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KHC

I agree with you that the political class that the duopoly have produced are lightweight phonies with a singular obsession of winning elected office. Since they have no convictions they will say and do anything that their consultants and donors suggest. Which means they have to be Borgist. Additionally they have to grease the wheels so as to have a smooth passage through the revolving door. Pathetic!

But....IMO, we citizens have to accept responsibility since it's our playing the partisan voting the lesser evil that has brought us here.

Posted by: Jack | 09 January 2016 at 03:01 PM

All

It looks like the Cruz campaign have released his mother's birth certificate.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/08/ted-cruz-mother-birth-certificate/

Posted by: Jack | 09 January 2016 at 03:05 PM

All

I'm in favor of adding to the birth citizenship criteria that at least one parent is a US citizen. I would also be open to amending the constitution to have either a natural born or naturalized citizen who meets the other criteria of age and residency be eligible to be President.

Posted by: Jack | 09 January 2016 at 03:12 PM