The Constitution in the Media

Mark Tushnet

Evidence that the media need constitutional advisers (I'm available for my usual hourly rate):

1. In the New York Times Magazine article on where the Republicans should go, David Brooks writes: "Nobody knows who the nominee will be [in 2008]. It could be Bill Frist, Chuck Hagel, Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado or somebody else -- maybe even Arnold Schwarzenegger." Not the last, unless the Constitution's amended or the Republicans again engage in extremely creative constitutional interpretation. The Constitution says (subject to a provision applicable only for a generation after 1789) that only "natural born Citizen[s]" are eligible for the Presidency. So far at least that has been interpreted to mean that naturalized citizens are ineligible. (There's a minor question, which arose when George Romney [born to U.S. citizen parents in Mexico] tried to get the Republican nomination, about whether people born outside the United States who nonetheless have citizenship at birth because their parents are citizens are eligible, but I think the judgment of experts, such as it is, is that they *are* eligible.) Schwarzenegger is, of course, a naturalized citizen.

The Constitution could be amended. Or maybe Schwarzenegger's supporters will start to urge seriously the argument, made as a joke by specialists when the quextion comes up, that "natural born citizen" means "delivered in the natural way, not by Caesarian."

2. We saw the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" yesterday (review: They managed to make a boring thriller; see the original instead). At one point the charcter played by Glenn CLose, a U.S. Senator, threatens another Senator with impeachment. Nope: The Senate decided in 1798 that it could not use impeachment to remove its own members, in the case of William Blount of Tennessee, who had been charged with conspiring with the British to take over Spanish territory in Florida and Louisiana. (The Senate expelled Blount instead.)
Posted 7:33 AM by Mark Tushnet [link]