[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Senate Examining (Again) Constitutional Ban on Foreign-Born Presidents

[ialterman at nyc.rr.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by ialterman at nyc.rr.com.


In the movie "Demolition Man," Sylvester Stallone is put in a cryo-prison (i.e., in stasis) in the present time and thawed out in about the year 2025.  He is being updated, by Sandra Bullock, on what has happened since he was imprisoned.  She casually mentions the "Schwarzengger Presidential Library."  He stops her and says, "Wait!  He was president?"

At the time the movie was made, it was intended to be a mild "dig" at Arnie, as Arnie, Sly and Bruce were then all partners in Planet Hollywood, and often made joking references to each other, both in real life and in film.

If the constitution is amended to permit non-American-born citizens to become president (and it is still a big "if"), it will be largely, if not solely, for Schwarzenegger's benefit.  And if (a bigger if) Arnie were to be elected, this would be a truly bizarre instance of life imitating art.

Peace.

ialterman at nyc.rr.com


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Senate Examining (Again) Constitutional Ban on Foreign-Born Presidents

October 6, 2004
 By MICHAEL JANOFSKY 



 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - Is America ready for President
Schwarzenegger? 

It was not so long ago that even the concept of Arnold
Schwarzenegger as a governor seemed improbable. A recall
effort took care of that, and now Congress is examining in
earnest how Mr. Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of
California, who was born in Austria, or any other
naturalized American could rise to the highest office in
the land. 

More than a year after lawmakers in the House and Senate
proposed a constitutional amendment to allow citizens born
elsewhere to be president, the Senate Judiciary Committee
gave the issue new momentum on Tuesday with a hearing that
let proponents argue why the constitutional restriction
should be eliminated. 

"It is time for us, the elected representatives of this
nation of immigrants, to begin the process that can result
in removing this artificial, outdated, unnecessary and
unfair barrier," Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the committee
chairman, said of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the
Constitution, which sets forth the eligibility requirements
for president. 

Mr. Hatch, a Utah Republican, presided over a lively but
mostly one-sided discussion that included testimony from
five lawmakers who have sponsored measures proposing a
constitutional amendment and two academics who favor the
concept. 

A sixth lawmaker, Senator Don Nickles, Republican of
Oklahoma, said he preferred expanding presidential
eligibility through legislation. That idea appealed to
another witness, Matthew Spalding of the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative organization, who said any
change should not take effect "for 10 years or so, when the
current candidates are not on the scene." 

By design, constitutional amendments face enormous hurdles,
needing approval by two-thirds vote in the House and Senate
and three-quarters of the states. Just 27 have passed since
1787, and 12 previous efforts since 1868 to remove the
restriction on foreign-born presidents have failed. 

Much of the discussion at the hearing sought to figure out
the motives of the founding fathers to limit the presidency
to people who were citizens at the time of the adoption of
the Constitution and then to native-born people. 

Alexander Hamilton's name came up more often than Mr.
Schwarzenegger's, but unlike Hamilton, who was born on
Nevis in the British West Indies, Mr. Schwarzenegger had a
backer in the audience, a woman who gave out buttons,
T-shirts and bumper stickers that said "Amend for Arnold." 

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat, whose
family moved to California from Canada in 1963, when she
was 4, had no such material support at the hearing. But Ms.
Granholm and Mr. Schwarzenegger, who emigrated in 1968 as a
21-year-old bodybuilder, agree that people like them should
be afforded the same constitutional rights as native
Americans. 

"You can't choose where you are born, but you can choose
where you live and where you swear your allegiance," Ms.
Granholm said through a press aide. "If the concern is
about loyalty to America, which it is, then a requirement
that a naturalized citizen has lived in this country for 25
or more years should alleviate that concern." 

Ms. Granholm said, "This is not about me; I have no
interest, not a whit, in running from president." 

That is not necessarily true of Mr. Schwarzenegger. Last
February on "Meet the Press" on NBC, he said a
constitutional amendment clearing the way for naturalized
citizens to be president would be "really good." 

"I think that, you know, times have changed," he said. "I
think this is now a much more global economy. I think
there's so many people here in this country that are now
from overseas, that are immigrants, that are doing such a
terrific job with the work, bringing businesses here and
all this, that there's no reason why not." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/politics/06presidency.html?ex=1098534846&ei=1&en=768381c7b72830c2


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