The point of this thread was supposed to be tongue in cheek. The flat earth birthers get all excited about BO but they don’t care about the fact that McCain was not born in the USA.
The Panama Canal Zone was Considered a US Territory when McCain was born. So he WAS born in the US.
Debatable, (but of course, irrelevant)
First off the Panama Canal Zone was not CONSIDERED a US possession, it ABSOLUTLY WAS a possession of the USA.
Next, is someone born in a possession of the United States eligible to be President under the “natural born citizen” clause of the Constitution?
The US Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 left it to the States to decide who is a citizen, so if someone was born in a possession and not a state, then are they eligible?
Citizens from Puerto Rico do not have Federal voting rights even though they live in possessions of the USA, can a Puerto Rican run for President?
Congress first recognized the citizenship of children born to U.S. parents overseas on 1790, stating that "the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States." To date, the Naturalization Act of 1790 has been the only U.S. law explicitly conferring statutory "natural born" citizenship. In 1795, Congress removed the words "natural born" from the law; the Naturalization Act of 1795 says only that foreign-born children of American parents "shall be considered as citizens of the United States."
All persons born in the United States, except those not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. government (such as children of ambassadors or other foreign diplomats) are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment. Additionally, the Immigration and Nationality Act defines individuals born abroad, as well as people born in most U.S. territories and possessions, as being "nationals and citizens of the United States at birth." The phrase "natural born citizen," however, does not appear in the current statutes dealing with citizenship at birth.
