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The Panama Canal Zone was under US administration when McCain was born, and he was on a US Naval base, so in some sense he was in US territory. The more intere
by bobthepanda 5y ago
The Panama Canal Zone was under US administration when McCain was born, and he was on a US Naval base, so in some sense he was in US territory.
The more interesting story is that of Ted Cruz, who had a noncitizen father and was born in Canada.
- ghaff 5y ago"In some sense" is what gets interesting :-) But I agree that both fall into an interesting (if probably not ultimately very important) area of ambiguity in US constitutional law and common law.
- mellavora 5y agoNot so ambiguous. Born on a US military base counts as US soil.
- ghaff 5y agoNo it is not: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/records-and-authentications/requesting-a-vital-record-as-a-u-s--citizen/faqs.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/records-and-authe... The arguments as I recall were basically two-fold: 1.) At the time, it was the Canal Zone (which wasn't quite US soil but maybe close enough) and 2.) There were some long-standing common law precedents related to agents of the king, diplomats, etc.