Thursday, November 18, 2004
Amend For Arnold
As both a lawyer, wannabe scholar, and former California resident, I find the emerging debate over whether to amend the constitution to allow foreign born citizens such as Gov.'s Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jeanne Granholm (who is, to my understanding, Canadian born) very interesting.
Article 2, sec. 1, cl. 5 states that "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." This language clearly prohibits foreign born naturalized citizens from being eligible for the Office of President of the United States.
What to do? Well the amendment process appears to be the only recourse, and lo and behold, such an amendment has already been offered by Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT). Personally, I'm not sure yet where I stand on the issue, however, I was reading the website Amend for Arnold (because it was linked to in my edition of The Hotline) and came across this interesting line. According to the site, "some Constitutional scholars believe this was actually changed by the 14th Amendment. That's the one that made former slaves into citizens of the United States --- whether or not they were born here. " I don't know what research they are referring to, or who the "constitutional scholars" are, but I have never seen this interpretation before and am not sure I agree with it. I was hoping to spur some discussion both on the constitutional interpretation, and the underlying issue of whether an amendment is a good policy idea.
Article 2, sec. 1, cl. 5 states that "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." This language clearly prohibits foreign born naturalized citizens from being eligible for the Office of President of the United States.
What to do? Well the amendment process appears to be the only recourse, and lo and behold, such an amendment has already been offered by Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT). Personally, I'm not sure yet where I stand on the issue, however, I was reading the website Amend for Arnold (because it was linked to in my edition of The Hotline) and came across this interesting line. According to the site, "some Constitutional scholars believe this was actually changed by the 14th Amendment. That's the one that made former slaves into citizens of the United States --- whether or not they were born here. " I don't know what research they are referring to, or who the "constitutional scholars" are, but I have never seen this interpretation before and am not sure I agree with it. I was hoping to spur some discussion both on the constitutional interpretation, and the underlying issue of whether an amendment is a good policy idea.
# posted by mouldfan : 3:01 PM
