Click here to read a New York Time’s article on John McCain’s citizenship and eligibility to be president. Michael I. Meyerson, professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, reviewed the history of the constitutional requirement that “no person except a natural-born citizen … shall be eligible to the office of president”. While acknowledged that the definition of natural-born is not free of ambiguity, Professor Meyerson concluded that John McCain, who was born to two Americans in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, while his father served in the Navy, is indeed a natural-born citizen. He reasoned that “the phrase “natural-born citizen” should be given a meaning consistent with our transcendent right to select those whom we believe are most fit to govern us.”
The “natural-born citizen” requirement was designed to prevent the admission of foreigners into the administration of the national government. The interesting question is: should a naturalized citizen still be considered a foreigner? I guess Professor Meyerson is not bold enough to say that the phrase “natural-born citizen” should not be given any meaning at all because American people should be able to select citizen they believe are most fit to govern them.