He's still a natural-born American citizen, though, because his parents were citizens.
Well...
See, there's an argument about that. The law that you'd think would apply, the one you're referring to - children born overseas to American parents are citizens, regardless - refers to children born "born beyond the sea or out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States". But the Panama Canal Zone, a US protectorate at the time of McCain's birth,
isn't outside the jurisdiction of the United States. Yet, it's not American territory, either. At the time of McCain's birth it existed in a legal gray zone - a gray zone that, in several court rulings, was interpreted to mean that people born in the Canal Zone
weren't automatically American citizens.
Now, in 1937, Congress closed that loophole and affirmed under statute that anyone born to American parents regardless of their location was American. But the thing is,
John McCain is older than that law. That's how fucking old that dude is. And being older than the law that granted him unambiguous citizenship
might have meant that he was not a
natural born American citizen.
It's an argument, anyway, and one advanced by actual lawyers - including law professor Gabriel Chin:
quote:
In the most detailed examination yet of Senator John McCain’s eligibility to be president, a law professor at the University of Arizona has concluded that neither Mr. McCain’s birth in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone nor the fact that his parents were American citizens is enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president must be a natural-born citizen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11mccain.html
All of that said, though, who could possibly have had standing to file the suit?
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