BREAKING! Panamanchurian Lawsuit Filed! 3-11-08

Let me preface this by saying explicitly, the lawyer who is filing this suit, while he lives in my town, is *NOT* me! And I don't know him at all, either!

This turned up in this morning's Riverside Press-Enterprise print edition, front page, top and center. Web version reproduced here. After a long day and feeling ill, I unfolded the paper and my jaw hit the floor.

Reference http://www.dailypaul.com/node/37509 for those who for some reason have no idea what this is about.

Then check this out!

http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_D...

Inland man queries McCain's eligibility status

Does the candidate, born outside the U.S., fit the Constitution's 'natural born' requirement?

Download story podcast http://pe.robocaster.com/download.mp3?http://www.pe.com/loca...

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, March 10, 2008

By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY
The Press-Enterprise

A Riverside man wants a federal judge to settle the constitutionally murky issue of whether presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is a "natural born" United States citizen.

McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone. His family lived there because his father, a Naval officer, was assigned to the U.S. territory. McCain's citizenship is not in question.

The challenge is whether he conforms with the "natural born" requirement for president.

"An actual controversy exists," says Andrew Aames, a worker's compensation attorney in Riverside who filed the lawsuit on his own behalf.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution specifies that "No person except a natural born Citizen" can be president.

"It's an odd phrase," said Karl Manheim, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

He said the 1787 language was probably created to keep the British from gaining the presidency. It has never been clarified by a legal challenge.

The issue rose last month when it was revealed that McCain's campaign was investigating the legal issue. McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, has said he believes the issue is already settled.

"It's very clear that (the idea that) an American born in a territory of the United States whose father is serving in the military would not be eligible for the presidency of the United States is certainly not something our founding fathers envisioned," McCain said.

Ames said he is not a supporter of any particular candidate at this time.

"Nobody put me up to it," he said of the lawsuit. "I hope to get it resolved in the federal courts. It's for the best of the political system. The whole world is watching."

Aames also said he worked briefly for the re-election U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, an Orange County Democrat.

In 2003, he filed a state court suit to stop the special gubernatorial recall election that removed Gov. Gray Davis from office and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In that lawsuit, which court records show Aames eventually withdrew, he claimed California's encouragement of voter registration for non-English speakers violated the state constitution.

The McCain lawsuit, he said, "has nothing to do with Gray Davis, nothing to do with Loretta Sanchez."

Aames' lawsuit names as defendants the United States of America, the Office of the Federal Register, the electoral college and the inaugural committee.

The lawsuit, filed March 6, was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson. No courtroom dates have been set.

'Credible Arguments'

Aames' lawsuit most likely will be dismissed as premature, Manheim said.

"There is no case or controversy yet. There won't be unless or until McCain is elected president in November," Manheim said.

Still, "it's a serious issue, and I think there are credible arguments on both sides," Manheim said. "That being said, I can't imagine the Supreme Court of the United States, where this would certainly wind up, denying McCain the presidency of the United States if the majority elected him."

Manheim said he believes the court would be unlikely to overturn McCain's election based only on ambiguous language in the Constitution.

The question of McCain's status was investigated during his 1999 try for the presidency. Officials in McCain's campaign confirmed last month they had asked legal scholar and former U.S. solicitor general Theodore B. Olson to review the matter again.

McCain said he did not personally ask for Olson to be consulted and that he was already certain the issue was settled.

The "natural born" matter is not unique to McCain. The late Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater was born in the Arizona Territory in 1909, three years before statehood.

Questions were raised about his status during the 1964 campaign, but ended when Goldwater lost the election to Lyndon Johnson.

Timing Issue

Aames says in his lawsuit that Congress passed a law in 1953 specifying that persons born in the canal zone of at least one American parent are U.S. citizens.

But, he said in the lawsuit, there is a question of timing -- does citizenship from the 1953 act meet the requirements of the Constitution's Article II?

Ames also said it is unclear if a person who qualifies for U.S. citizenship under the 1953 law is also a "natural born citizen," within the meaning of the U.S. Constitution.

Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368-9573 or rdeatley@PE.com

The Associated Press contributed to this story

Needless to say I'll be forwarding my stuff to him!