Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

No congress cand define the eligibility requirements, the courts settle that when some states tried to ban past felons from running for office. The courts rule the constitutional offices who the eligibility reirms define by the contusion isn't subject to state for federal legislation modifying those elebi,ites short of an amendment. The most congress can do is clefication defintion of what the enu reated requirmets are the the courts can review a channel of if that defintion meets with the intent of the clause

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

The only wiggle room here is that this pre-dates the Consitution.

Otherwise. this would be an attempt to violate the Supremacy clause (overuling Federal law with State law) and an attempt to overide the Constitution with statutory law.

Neither is permissable and the Court wouldn't be reluctant to rule. These are not political issues.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

The courts would strike it down on the grounds that Congress has sole authority to regulate naturalization (which would also be Congress's argument, whether in favor of or opposition to the case in question). Lafayette's descendents are unlikely to be able to claim anything but ceremonial/honorary citizenship.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

Do the ASBs actually want him to become president?

If so, they should get the impediment removed before he even becomes a candidate.

They should use a stalking horse candidate who is a non-native-born citizen to run as an independent to pave the way, running in either 2008 or 2012.

He should be very well regarded, but not a real threat of winning. Being Latino would be best to engage the interest of a large and growing voting group. Neither party will see a need or any gain in opposing him. The ASBs should ensure that his eligblitity is challenged by the least appealing persons or entities they can find. The unfairness of him being stopped will be the PR basis for the constitutional change campaign you need to accomplish by about 2018 so that Arnie's non-native-bornness will be unremarkable when he starts his campaign.

BTW, there's a Wikipedia related to this. It seems like a morass to attempt to do it without a constitutional amendment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...ty_legislation

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

Whether which route would feel more plausible will depend on the players. My gut feeling is that U.S. based players will more likely feel that a constitutional amendment was more plausible. Going against that may well break the suspension of disbelief.

Also, the Alien Space Bats could, and probably should, try both. If the court challenges are widely publicized and get popular support of the public, politicians will be more likely to work towards a constitutional amendment. If the constitutional amendment movement gets popular support, the courts will feel more comfortable to rule in favor for "Equal Opportunity to Govern".

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

I think the point is that if Maryland could do it then, Congress could do it now.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

Maryland could only do it before the Constitution was written. Thwy couldn't do it now and Congress can't either. Overuling the Constitution with statutory acts is a bright line that the Court will not permit to be crossed. The Constitution is supreme over all statotory acts and this is one of the fundamentals of US law.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

Very much so.

I'm assuming that they've been working toward that goal since 2005, but given that they have been gradually growing in power, they simply didn't have the power to do this earlier or in only a few years after they began.

I agree that this makes sense, but note that in 2008, the ASBs were a minor help at best and by 2012, they were still at least an order of magnitude weaker than they are today.

I'm imagining that while a lot of work was done before 2012, the 2016 election was where this really became a popular issue.

I want to work some or all of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Boddy Jindal into the backstory, with one or more of them having gone further with their presidential bid than they did in our history, but I'm also not averse to using a fictional candidate as a stalking horse in addition to the efforts of fictionalized real people. Also, as you say, independent politicians would be a good way to get the issue in front of a judge, as well as having clandestine allegiances with foreign-born and ambitious young politicians from both major parties.

Every method is a morass of complexity and potential pitfalls. Hence, why I'm proposing that even with quite effective ASB help, alt-Schwarzenegger is still not a secure and undisputed eligible candidate for the 2020 Presidency even at the end of 2018. However, things should have advanced enough so that there is a realistic chance that by the time the election takes place, alt-Schwarzenegger could be a legal candidate through one mechanism or another.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

I am saying that its most plausible if this just happened for the usual kind of random reasons at one of the times when the US government was not deadlocked. As you know, in the postwar era the USA failed to pass something as uncontroversial as a gender-equality amendment. Crazy things can happen in politics and <snips comment on US constitutional law- P.> but the intent of the law is pretty clear and I don't know of a massive constituency to ignore the intent so they can do what they want.

Edit: If I understand it, Ted Cruz was born to two US citizens in Canada, which is good basis for citizenship according to the ius omnium gentium. Pericles or Cato would not have found that strange, its only modern states which care where someone was born. But when the constitution says "No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen" but "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States." I guess you would have to hammer pretty hard on the "or" part and it sounds like there are lots of precedents.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern
 

The act discussed just now does not over-rule the constitution. There is no rule in the constitution saying the legislature can't declare someone to be natural born.

This is where the plausibility suffers. Having him be both a realistic candidate and the poster boy for a major constitutional change that is supposed to enable his candidacy is too much, IMO.