Is John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a “natural born citizen,” per the Constitution, or not? Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill thinks the issue needs more clarity and is trying to get a “sense of the Senate” type resolution to note that McCain meets the Constitution’s requirement.
What does “natural born citizen” mean, anyway? Given the small size of our country at start, compared to today, and other issues such as Washington warning against “entangling alliances” and large standing armies, an original intentist on the Supreme Court, such as Antonin Scalia, if he were consistent on this, might find that McCain is NOT a natural-born citizen.
My observation is that I don’t think a “sense of the Congress” legislation is an adequate fix. It’s a Constitutional issue that needs clarifying language, and for that clarifying language to stand up to full legal scrutiny, I think an amendment is needed.
It's not just the “natural born citizen,” either. What if McCain, or someone else, needed to claim time in the Canal Zone toward the “fourteen Years a Resident within the United States” requirement? Is the Canal Zone “within the United States”? I don’t think so. And I definitely think this is only addressable by amendment.
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