Nashuan questions McCain’s eligibility

CONCORD – Weeks after a similar case was filed in California, a Nashua man has asked the federal court to rule that Sen. John McCain can’t be president because he was born out of bounds.

Fred Hollander, of 56 Dorchester Way, filed suit against the Arizona senator and the Republican National Committee, arguing he and other Republican voters would be “disenfranchised” if McCain becomes the party’s nominee for president.

Hollander could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. His suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, asks a judge to order McCain to withdraw, and the GOP to nominate someone else.

A lawyer in Riverside, Calif., filed a similar suit in California’s Central District U.S. District Court on March 6, court records show. That case asks only for a “declaratory judgment” on whether McCain would be eligible to serve as president if elected.

Notice of Hollander’s suit was mailed out Monday to McCain and the Republican National Committee, court records show.
At issue is Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States, which states that “No person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

That provision is what prevents naturalized citizens – California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger, for example – from being eligible to become president. Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, persons born in the United States, on the other hand, are deemed citizens, even if their parents are illegal immigrants.

McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone. His parents both were U.S. citizens; his father was a U.S. Naval officer.

The Panama Canal Zone was not U.S. territory, however, and Hollander argues McCain is therefore technically a naturalized citizen and “unequivocally ineligible” to serve as president.
If that is the case, Hollander argues, any votes cast for McCain effectively don’t count.

“While the plaintiff respects Senator John McCain’s lifetime of service to our country, it is nonetheless irrelevant to this issue now before this Court,” Hollander’s suit states. “Plaintiff also concedes the unfortunate irony that a person born outside of the United States, because his father was serving our country as a member of the U.S. Navy, should be found ineligible for the Office of President. However, should an exception be made for persons born to parents serving in our armed forces, we would start down a dangerous and slippery slope.”

“The United States Constitution does not make any such exceptions . . . and it is fair to assume that the lack of exceptions was intentional and by sound reason,” he wrote.
“It’s nonsense . . . .The idea that he would not be eligible for the presidency of the United States is certainly not something our founding fathers envisioned, and is an affront to the men and women serving our country abroad,” campaign spokesperson Cheryl Benton said.

“This issue was raised in 2000 and deemed ridiculous.”
New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen declined to comment on the merits of Hollander’s arguments, but said, “We appreciate Mr. Hollander reminding voters that Senator McCain’s family has been in service to this nation since literally the day John McCain was born.”

The “natural born” question has surfaced before, but has never been decided definitively by U.S. courts. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for President, was born in Arizona three years before it became a state, but lost the general election to Lyndon Johnson.

George Romney, father of former McCain rival Mitt Romney, ran for President in 1968, despite having been born in Mexico, but Richard Nixon got the party’s nomination.