Natural-born citizen?

Natural born citizen is a term describing a certain kind of citizenship. It is mentioned in the United States Constitution as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States.



An article in today's New York Times raises a fascinating question: Does the constitution preclude John McCain from being president? The Arizona senator was born, not in the United States, but in the Panama Canal Zone.

Without further explanation, the constitution requires that U.S. presidents be "natural-born citizens." McCain is a U.S. citizen, of course, but he wasn't born on American soil. Experts on this rather arcane subject consider McCain's situation a grey area, open to interpretation. And a professor who has studied the question extensively told the Times, "It is not a slam-dunk situation."