Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

But the constitution does not say "born in the US". And it does not define what "natural" means.

I don't think any argument that it meant "not a clone, a person delivered by caesarian, or a person conceived immaculately or by artificial insemination" is going to fly outside of a comedy, so I don't think you're going to be able to get away from the "born as a citizen" interpretation, particularly given that there was a need to give the likes of George Washington an exception ("or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of Adoption of this Constitution"). The question then becomes, if you want to avoid a Constitutional Amendment (or a functional Judicial Amendment, and all the problems that could cause), if State Legislatures could specifically grant someone "natural born" status, or if Congress could enact a law that allows one to gain "natural born" status by other means (as previously noted, being a citizen for 35 years or more seems like a fair option). I think with ASB tweaking and the laFayette precedent, one of these options could work, and be much easier/less problematic than the alternatives.

Note the important thing here isn't that whatever hoops one goes through be correct, but that they be something the public will accept enough not to raise a really big stink over it.