Today the Today the Senate is debating a non-binding resolution to settle the status of John McCain's citizenship -- the Arizona Senator was born in the Panama Canal Zone -- to clarify whether he is eligible under the Constitution to serve as President. Now, I don't think McCain's eligibility is any more in question than Clinton's (just because the Constitution specifies "he" instead of more gender-neutral terminology isn't a disqualification, to my mind) but this is nonetheless an interesting legal question.
Citizenship is conferred by place of birth, yet people are born over international waters, in military zones, etc. all the time. Does McCain's status ultimately depend on U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice or does it fall under the jurisdiction of the host country of the military base? There are previous examples of this being an issue, notably Barry Goldwater, who was born in Arizona territory and George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but it has never been clarified. I turn this open question over to our more legally-inclined readers to debate, but it would be nice if Congress simply made clear by statute the ambiguous "natural born" language of the Constitution.
--Mori Dinauer
