John McCain and his Mythical Birth Certificate

by nolu chan
September 20, 2009
As Michael Dobbs reported in his Washington Post Fact-Check, "the McCain campaign has declined to publicly
release the senator's birth certificate." No birth certificate, certificate of live birth, or even a JPEG image of any
birth document has ever been made public by John McCain.
With the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the COLB produced by Obama, the pass previously given, and
still being given in some quarters to McCain, deserves a review.
----http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050103224 pf.html
Michael Dobbs wrote in the Washington Post, Friday, May 2, 2008,
"In his autobiography, "Faith of My Fathers," McCain writes that he was born "in the Canal Zone"
at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Coco Solo, which was under the command of his grandfather, John
S. McCain Sr."
"A senior official of the McCain campaign showed a reporter a copy of the senator's birth certificate
issued by Canal Zone health authorities, recording his birth in the Coco Solo "family hospital."
In this version of events, McCain was allegedly born in the Canal Zone, on the U.S. Naval Air Station at Coco
Solo, and is quite specific in referring to the command of McCain's grandfather, which was the Air Station.
Dobbs refers to an unidentified McCain campaign official permitting "a reporter" a glimpse of what the staffer
purported was a birth certificate issued by "Canal Zone health authorities," not U.S. military authorities. "A
reporter" is a curious anonymous description by Michael Dobbs of a reporter whom Michael Dobbs later
claimed was Michael Dobbs.
The "reporter" with the sneak peek at the document looked right at it and then repeated McCain's
autobiography assertion, that he was born at the Naval Air Station, without saying a mumbling word about
the Submarine Base. Since it became apparent that the Naval Air Station had no hospital, and apparently no
doctor assigned, the "hospital" description and location has morphed.
No relevant record issued by Canal Zone health authorities has ever been released or discovered. The official
Canal Zone records are maintained in College Park, Maryland. McCain's birth is not recorded therein.
----http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/john_mccains_birthplace.html
FACT-CHECKER
Michael Dobbs
[excerpt]
The Facts
As I reported earlier, the McCain campaign has declined to publicly release the senator's birth
certificate. But a senior campaign official showed me a copy of his birth certificate issued by the
"family hospital" in the Coco Solo submarine base. (McCain's grandfather commanded the Coco
Solo Naval Air Station in 1936; his father was the executive officer of a submarine based in Coco
Solo.)
The birth certificate was signed by Captain W. L. Irvine. I have now checked that name against the
Naval Register for 1936, and I find that William Lorne Irvine was director of the medical facility at

the submarine base hospital in Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, during that time period. You can
see the entry here I think this effectively disposes of any remaining doubts that McCain was born
inside the Canal Zone.
The senator's 96-year-old mother, Roberta McCain, recalled the occasion in a Mother's Day video
available here. She recalled "the 27 bottles of Scotch" stacked on a table of the nearby Officers'
Club, gifts to her husband in celebration of the arrival of "the sweetest, nicest child I have ever
known."
----As noted by Michael Dobbs, the McCain campaign REFUSED to release a copy of any birth certificate. An
anonymous campaign official is reported to have shown a copy of something alleged to be a birth certificate
to "a reporter." Dobbs subsequently asserted he was the reporter.
No copy of a McCain birth certificate has ever been produced by McCain. A third generation senior naval
officer, McCain wrote that he was born on the Naval Air Station, of which his grandfather was then
commanding officer, not the Submarine Base. The Naval Hospital was not built at Coco Solo until the 1940's.
There is not, and never has been, any such thing as a Navy "family hospital." Officially, in all military medical
facilities, active duty military have priority of care.
No official record, or image thereof, has ever been produced to show where and when John McCain was born.
The nearest hospital was run by the Panama Canal Commission. It was located approximately 100 yards
outside the CZ limits. Here we speak of a complete hospital with an operating theater.
----THE DOCUMENT RELIED UPON BY MICHAEL DOBBS/FACT CHECK
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/mccain_irvine_2.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/full/19929202?access key=key-e450k089hpcncxl3mdi
William Irvine is listed at #71.

The document linked by Michael Dobbs fails to support his contention - it does NOT show that William Lorne
Irvine was the director of a medical facility, or that the alleged "family hospital" existed. William Irvine held
the old medical staff rank of Medical Director, equivalent to Captain. The old staff rank designators have been
abandoned.
The Act of Mar. 3, 1871, established five grades in the Medical Corps of which two, medical director and
medical inspector, were higher than the grade of surgeon.
The archaic rank structure of naval staff officers was not changed until Officer Personnel Act of 1947 (34
U.S.C. 10a). William Irvine was NOT a Navy Captain as claimed by Michael Dobbs. There was no such thing as
a U.S. Navy Medical Corps Captain in 1936. Medical Director Irvine was just that - his RANK was Medical
Director. His rank designator no more documents Medical Director Irvine was a director of a non-existent Navy
family hospital than does the title of Flight Surgeon Connie Rhodes indicate she does scalpel surgery in a nonexistent operating theater on an aircraft (or elsewhere).
http://law.justia.com/us/codes/title10/10usc5137.html
In subsection (a) the words "from officers on the active list of the Navy in the Medical Corps" are
substituted for the words "from the list of Surgeons of the Navy" to conform to present statutory

terminology, and the words "or from officers having the rank of captain in the staff corps of the
Navy" are omitted as obsolete in view of the subsequent changes in staff corps grades and the
establishment of grades and ranks higher than captain in the staff corps. R.S. 421 and 426 were
derived from the Act of July 5, 1862, ch. 134, 12 Stat. 510, and the Act of Mar. 3, 1871, ch. 117,
Sec. 10, 16 Stat. 537. The Act of July 5, 1862, provided that the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine
and Surgery should be appointed from the list of surgeons in the Navy. At that time the senior
medical officers were "surgeons" who "ranked with" commanders. Next junior to them were
"surgeons" who "ranked with" lieutenants. The rank of lieutenant commander did not exist. The
Act of Mar. 3, 1871, established five grades in the Medical Corps of which two, medical
director and medical inspector, were higher than the grade of surgeon. Medical directors
were given the relative rank of captain, medical inspectors the relative rank of commander, and
surgeons the relative rank of lieutenant commander or lieutenant.
[...]
Section 405 of the Officer Personnel Act of 1947 (34 U.S.C. 10a) abolished the grade of surgeon
and other staff corps grades and replaced them with grades having the same titles as the grades
and ranks in the line. Officers who were "surgeons" are now "lieutenant commanders and
lieutenants in the Medical Corps."
In 1911, Dr. Irvine held the staff designation of "Assistant Surgeon." It does not mean he was assisting
anyone with surgery.

Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps January 1,
1911, Washington, Government Printing Office, p. 232
On his discovery of a Navy record actually showing William Irvine held the rank of Medical Director, Mr. Dobbs
first documented his own misunderstanding of what he found by calling that officer "Captain Irvine" instead of
his proper title, Medical Director Irvine. Then Dobbs asserted of his discovered document, and his erroneous
conclusions, "I think this effectively disposes of any remaining doubts that McCain was born inside the Canal
Zone."
Unfortunately, what Dobbs claims to be the evidence which disposes of any remaining doubts about where
McCain was born proves only that the Dobbs report is erroneous. And note that Dobbs asserts that it is this
document, not something that came before, that allegedly disposes of remaining doubts.
I would further note that the fictional, non-existent Navy "family hospital," was moved by Dobbs from
McCain's claimed place of birth on the Naval Air Station to Irvine's location at the Navy Submarine Base.
Presumably the document that Dobbs claims to have seen one time did not change.
A clinic or dispensary cannot routinely deliver babies in an ad hoc delivery room. The Feres Doctrine protects
the military from malpractice suits by military members but not by civilian dependents. Were there to be a
problem delivery, it sure would be nice to have an operating theater nearby, with a staff to man it. Navy
clinics and dispensaries do not sport operating theaters and an O.R. staff.
----The Panama Canal Zone was not part of the United States.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E1DF113BE631A2575AC2A9619C946597D6CF
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?

_r=1&res=9C06E1DF113BE631A2575AC2A9619C946597D6CF
NOT PART OF UNITED STATES.; Treasurer Tracewell Defines Panama Canal Zone's Status.
Special to The New York Times.
July 29, 1904, Friday
Page 1, 252 words
WASHINGTON, July 28. -- "While the general spirit and purpose of the Constitution is applicable to
the zone, that domain is not a part of the United States within the full meaning of the Constitution
and laws of the country.
This is the substance of an opinon made by Controller of the Treasurer Tracewell today defining
the authority of the Panama Canal Commission regarding disbursements and the realtion of the
canal zone to the United States."
[snip]
----The United States did not exercise sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone.
http://www.bartleby.com/43/47.html
Article III of the Treaty provided, "The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights, power
and authority within the zone mentioned and described in Article II of this agreement, and within the limits of
all auxiliary lands and waters mentioned and described in said Article II which the United States would possess
and exercise, if it were the sovereign of the territory within which said lands and waters are located to the
entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, power or authority."
-- "which the United States would possess and exercise, if it were the sovereign" -- is conclusive that the U.S.
was -not- the sovereign of that territory, but only that it was permitted by the actual sovereign to exercise
rights, powers, and authorities belonging to the actual sovereign. The sovereign (RP) delegates authority, it
does not delegate sovereignty. The U.S. had jurisdiction but not sovereignty.
----http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:3:./temp/~c110Z6fjjX::
SRES 511 ATS
[...]
Whereas John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American military base in
the Panama Canal Zone in 1936: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That John Sidney McCain, III, is a 'natural born Citizen' under Article II, Section 1, of the
Constitution of the United States.
Whether territory is a military base or not has no bearing on whether it is U.S. territory for citizenship
purposes. If one is born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, he is born a citizen
according the the 14th Amendment. If born outside the United States, citizenship status is controlled by
Federal statute. The only question about one being a natural born citizen is if he or she was born a citizen.
Persons who became citizens at the moment of birth are natural born citizens.
-----

Overseas military bases are not sovereign U.S. territory.

UNITED STATES STATE DEPARTMENT
www.state.gov/documents/organization/86755.pdf
7 FAM 1100 ACQUISITION AND RETENTION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY
Note that at 7 FAM 1116.1-4(c) is found:
c. Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S.
diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of
the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to
the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of
birth.
----http://navyhistory.med.navy.mil/Research/Research.html
The Historian at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) lists historical facilities maintained by the U.S.
Navy since 1806. There has never been any such entity as a Navy "family hospital." Units which are not
hospitals are clinics or dispensaries or rehab facilities.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/mccain_announcement_041708.pdf
While there is a birth announcement saying that McCain was born in the Submarine Base Hospital, the nonexistent hospital is not given physical or historical existence by a misattribution. There was only one hospital
there in 1936, and it was 100 yards outside the territory of the Canal Zone. Absent fences and gates, a
colloquial reference to that hospital as the base hospital is not unlikely. It was run by the American Panama
Canal Company.
While there has been such a thing as a Base Hospital during WW1 and WW2, there has never been any
official Base Hospital in Panama at any time. The U.S. Navy creates Base Hospitals in wartime.
http://navyhistory.med.navy.mil/Collections/Library/Historical%20Files%20Finding%20Aid.pdf
Base/Fleet Mobile Hospitals (1917 to Present)
Base Hospitals:
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base

Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital

1 Londonderry, Northern Ireland/Brest, France (World War I)

1 New Guinea (World War II)
2 Strathpeffer, Scotland (World War I)
2 Efate, New Hebrites (World War II)
3 Leith, Scotland (World War I)
3 Espiritu Santos, New Hebrites (World War II)
4 Queenstown, Ireland (World War I)
4 Wellington, New Zealand (World War II)
5 Brest, France (World War I)
6 Espiritu Santos, New Hebrites (World War II)
7 Tulagi, Solomon Islands (World War II)
8 Pearl Harbor, HI (World War II)
9 Oran, Algeria (World War II)
10 Sydney, Australia (World War II)
11 Munda, New Georgia (World War II)
12 Netley, England (World War II)
13 Hilimoi, New Guinea (World War II)
14 Finschaven, New Guinea/Cavite, Philippines (World War II)

Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base

Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital
Hospital

15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Manus Island, Admiralty Islands (World War II)

Woendi, Netherlands East Indies (World War II)
Hollandia, New Guinea (World War II)
Apra Harbor, Guam, Marianas Islands (World War II)
Tinian (World War II)
Peleliu, Palau Islands (World War II)
Kwajalein Island, Marshall Islands (World War II)

BUMED Historical Files Finding Aid

Colloquially, people refer to the "base hospital," but then they refer to the "roach coach" as well. Being
assigned to Hotel Barracks did not create a hotel and a room with a view.
While there were and are Naval Hospitals, and there was one in Coco Solo, it was constructed in 1941. It
seems reasonable to conclude that McCain was not born there in 1936.
A navy hospital is a separate command with its own commanding officer. It may be what is called a tenant
command situated on a Naval Station or Base, but it is always, without exception, a separate command.
The document Dobbs relies upon shows that Dr. Irvine held the rank of Medical Director and was assigned to
the Submarine Base. The document proves that Irvine was not the commanding officer of a hospital at the
Submarine Base. Were he such, official Navy records would list him as attached to the hospital of which he
was commanding officer. The document does NOT show that Dr. Irvine was either the director of anything, or
that any sort of "hospital" existed at the Submarine Base.
The only evidence of the existence of any "base hospital" at the Submarine Base at Coco Solo is in an English
newspaper birth announcement in Panama, in the Republic of Panama.

----The U.S. Naval Hospital in the Canal Zone at Coco Solo did not exist in 1936.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60931
Executive Order 8981 - Navy Hospital Area, Coco Solo, Canal Zone, December 17, 1941, signed by President
Franklin D Roosevelt said, "The following-described area of land in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set
apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a naval reservation, which shall be known as Navy
Hospital Area, Coco Solo, and which shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy...."
----Without enough people after WW2 to justify the existence of a Naval Hospital at Coco Solo, the Navy gave it
away. There were not enough people to justify the existence of such a hospital before WW2, which is why it
had not been built and did not exist.
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_10/issue_12/science_01.html
"The Second World War brought a major expansion of the Canal Zones hospital facilities, most of which never
saw the massive influxes of war casualties for which they were built and were later converted for non-medical
purposes. (One of those, Coco Solo Hospital, was built by the US Navy and later turned over to the Panama
Canal Company, and now lives on as the Policlinica Hugo Spadafora."
----Image of a page from the Panama Canal Commission Birth Register:

The Panama Canal Commission Birth Register is maintained at College Park, Maryland.
While the Michael Dobbs article asserts, "A senior official of the McCain campaign showed a reporter a copy of
the senator's birth certificate issued by Canal Zone health authorities, recording his birth in the Coco Solo
'family hospital,'" it does not appear in the register of births maintained by the Panama Canal Commission and
no U.S. Navy "family hospital" exists in Navy records.
This purported facility has morphed from a Hospital on the Naval Air Station, to a Submarine Base Hospital, to
a Navy Family Hospital, to a vague medical facility.
There is very strong evidence that in 1936 the base hospital did not exist and that at the Coco Solo base,
"Existing facilities in 1939 included a small landing-field, three plane hangars, one blimp hangar, barracks,

officer's quarters, three seaplane ramps, and a few miscellaneous buildings."

Base housing did not exist. The contract for it was awarded in December 1940.
http://ftp1.us.proftpd.org/hyperwar//USN/Building_Bases/bases-18.html
[excerpt]
Coco Solo
Naval Air Station. -- The Coco Solo air station occupies 185 acres of hard land, on the east side
of Manzanillo Bay. Existing facilities in 1939 included a small landing-field, three plane
hangars, one blimp hangar, barracks, officer's quarters, three seaplane ramps, and a
few miscellaneous buildings.
When the development of the station was begun on August 1, 1940, the approved plan
contemplated expansion sufficient to serve seven patrol squadrons of seaplanes. The
original site, though limited, was considered to be the most advantageous that could be found in
the Canal Zone; consequently, maximum expansion was advocated rather than construction of an
additional base in another locality.
The greatest single deficiency existing at the station was the lack of sheltered water for full-load
take-off immediately adjacent to the base. There was a wide gap of open water between the
eastern breakwater and Margarita Point, through which heavy ocean swells entered Manzanillo Bay,
frequently making seaplane operations hazardous. In addition, the station lacked sufficient
hangars, ramps, parking aprons, housing, storage, and repair facilities.
The initial construction effort, therefore, was concentrated on closing the 3,800-foot gap in the
Margarita breakwater. Rubble-mound construction, laid on a 15-foot coral mat, was used, the wall
itself having a coral-fill core, covered with heavy rock and armored with pre-cast concrete blocks.
It was built entirely from a temporary timber trestle, without the use of floating equipment other
than the hydraulic dredge used for placing the foundation and core.
At the air station proper, three large steel hangars, four seaplane ramps, 700,000 square feet of
concrete parking area, engine test stands, and a large aircraft assembly and repair shop were
added to the operating area fronting on Manzanillo Bay. To make expansion possible, it was
necessary to reclaim 30 acres of beach by dredge. A steel sheet-pile sea-wall, 2,100 feet long, was
driven to enclose two edges of this newly made land.
Other construction accomplished at the station included a barrack and mess hall for 1,000 men, a
new wing to an existing barracks to care for 400 men, a bombproof command center, an
operations building, a large administration building to house the administrative offices of both the
air station and the adjoining submarine base, and several large warehouses.
Dredging operations at the air station were also extended to furnish coral fill for the construction of
new runways at Army's adjacent France Field. When that field was completed, 1,700 feet of
concrete taxiway, 66 feet wide, was built to connect the two stations. The Navy, henceforth, used
Army facilities for the operation of its landplanes in the Coco Solo area.
[...]
Housing
As a part of the general expansion program undertaken in the Canal Zone, two housing
developments, totaling 1,400 units, were built to provide for the families of married enlisted
personnel and civilian employees of the 15th Naval District. These units, built under a contract
awarded in December 1940, were divided, 1,104 being on the Atlantic and 296 on the Pacific
end of the Canal.

The larger development, Coco Solito, was constructed on a 33-acre, filled-in site, one mile south of
the air station at Coco Solo. Laid out with six east-west streets and three north-south ones, Coco
Solito contained 91 twelve-unit, one eight-unit, and one four-unit apartment buildings. The
structures were of similar type and design, three stories high, of concrete and frame, with
galvanized-iron roofing and the ground floors available for garages and laundries.
The housing area at the Pacific end of the Canal encircled San Juan Hill on three sides, spreading
over approximately 100 acres of rolling ground which required considerable clearing and leveling. It
included 66 four-unit apartments, 2 officers' houses, 2 bachelor officers' quarters, and 5 B-1-type
barracks, together with several community buildings, storehouses, a public-works shop,
administration, subsistence, and service buildings.
At Lacona, 296 apartments for civilian personnel were completed in December 1941. This group
comprised 24 twelve-unit and one eight-unit apartment houses.
A new 12-inch water main replaced the former 8-inch one supplying Balboa, and a 750,000-gallon
water reservoir was built on San Juan Hill to serve naval activities.
Hospitals
To care for the large increases in personnel which accompanied the expansion of the naval
establishment, a new 200-bed naval hospital was built on a 40-acre tract of high land,
on the north side of the new Trans-Isthmian Highway, about 3 miles from the Coco
Solo air station. This facility consisted of a four-story structure, with additional buildings for
quarters, laundry, garage, and sewage plant, all of reinforced concrete. It was commissioned in
September 1942, and later enlarged by the addition of two temporary wards of frame
construction, to provide 500 beds.
A second hospital was built on a 50-acre tract adjoining the operating base on the Pacific side.
Construction of this 400-bed facility was begun in the late fall of 1941. It was commissioned
August 15, 1942, and put to immediate use, though only partially completed.
All the buildings were of temporary frame construction, one-story high, and well ventilated. They
included six standard H-type wards, connected by covered passageways, quarters, and
administration building, and laboratories, messhalls, and garages. Location and general layout were
chosen so as to be readily adaptable if permanent structures were eventually erected on the site.
Note that Naval Hospitals are commands. They are commissioned. As a command, it has a commanding
officer.
Any official document created by the U.S. Navy manages to identify the command it came from. A dispensary
or clinic does not call itself a hospital in an official document.
In the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Captain is a junior officer. In the different rank structure of the
Navy, a Captain is equivalent to a full bird Colonel in the other services, and the next advancement is to flag
rank. One of those does not get assigned to run a little clinic. A Navy Captain doctor might be the
Commanding Officer of a Naval Hospital, and a line Captain might be the Commanding Officer of an Aircraft
Carrier.
Just as a Flight Surgeon is assigned to ensure the special physical qualifications and see to the special needs
of military aviators, and specially trained doctor is assigned to ensure the special physical qualifications and
see to the special needs of submariners. Dr. Irvine was assigned to the Submarine Base , not to a non-existent
OB delivery room at a non-existent Navy family hospital.
----Here are two lengthy and opposing scholarly opinions on the citizenship of John McCain. Both are based on
McCain having been born inside the Canal Zone. If it were shown that McCain was born 100 yards outside the
Canal Zone in the Colon hospital, then McCain would clearly be a natural born citizen, but his claim to having

been born on the U.S. Naval Air Station, Coco Solo would be erroneous.
http://www.michiganlawreview.org/firstimpressions/vol107/chin.pdf
Gabriel J. Chin, Commentary, Why Senator John McCain Cannot Be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred
Yards Short of Citizenship, 107 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 1 (2008). (21 pp.)
Professor Gabriel Chin's article in Michigan Law Review discussing McCain birth in CZ in 1936. Professor Chin
casts doubt on natural born citizen status if born in CZ rather than Republic of Panama.
In 1936, the Canal Zone fell into a gap in the law, covered neither by the citizenship clause nor
Revised Statutes section 1993 (passed as the Act of May 24, 1934), the only statute applicable to
births to U.S. citizens outside the United States. As then-Representative John Sparkman explained
in 1937: the Canal Zone is not such foreign territory as to come under the law of 1855 [Revised
Statutes section 1993] and, on the other hand, it is not part of the United States which would bring
it within the fourteenth amendment. The problem was well known; Richard W. Flournoys 1934
American Bar Association Journal article, Proposed Codification of Our Chaotic Nationality Laws,
explained we have no statutory provisions defining the nationality status of persons born in the
Canal Zone . . . .
Because the Canal Zone was a no mans land, in the words of Representative Sparkman, in 1937
Congress passed a statute, the Act of Aug. 4, 1937 (now codified at 8 U.S.C. 1403(a)) granting
citizenship to [a]ny person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904 who had at
least one U.S. citizen parent. This Act made Senator McCain a U.S. citizen before his first birthday.
But again, to be a natural born citizen, one must be a citizen at the moment of birth. Since
Senator McCain became a citizen in his eleventh month of life, he does not satisfy this criterion, is
not a natural born citizen, and thus is not eligible to the Office of President.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1236882
Sachs, Stephen E., John McCain's Citizenship: A Tentative Defense (August 19, 2008). (52 pp.)
Sen. John McCain was born a U.S. citizen and is eligible to be president. The most serious
challenge to his status, recently posed by Prof. Gabriel Chin, contends that the statute granting
citizenship to Americans born abroad did not include the Panama Canal Zone, where McCain was
born in 1936. When Congress amended the law in 1937, he concludes, it was too late for McCain
to be natural born.
Even assuming, however, that McCains citizenship depended on this statute -- and ignoring his
claim to citizenship at common law -- Chins argument may be based on a misreading. When the
statutory language was originally adopted in 1795, it was apparently read to address all children
born outside of the United States proper, which would include those born in the Canal Zone.
Patterns of historical usage, early interpretations of the citizenship statutes, contemporaneous
expressions of the statutes purpose, and the actual application of the statutes to cases analogous
to McCains all confirm this understanding. More recently, the acquisition of Americas outlying
possessions lent plausibility to new interpretations of the law. But because the key language was
never altered between 1795 and 1936, its original meaning was preserved intact, making John
McCain a U.S. citizen at birth.
-----