Arizona's Idea

The House of Representatives of Arizona has a novel idea. Let's copy the U.S. constitution. Let's not waste our time drafting, debating, editing, debating again, adjourning for a holiday, recessing, campaigning, then going home to hodl town hall meetings to here why the voters elected him or her, then reconvening and voting, ad nauseum. Let's just take one simple idea written in the 18th century and put it ours. What's the idea? In order to serve as President you must be an American citizen.

What does the United States Constitution say? Article 2, section 1 states, "No person except a natural born citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States." In order to serve as President, you must be an American citizen. The Constitution does not prescribe how to prove such citizenship, nor who must judge such proof to be adequate.

The Arizona House has proposed the obvious solution. Require anyone entering the state's Presidential primary to show up with a valid birth certificate. Only with that proof can the Presidential hopeful be certified as a candidate. If not, under the state law propossed, he or she would be allowed on the ballot and also would be deprived of Arizona's delegates to any party convention. Presumably this would apply to any electoral votes the state has in the national election.

Why is this important at this stage of the O'bama presidency? Do we really want to go through the "after birther mess"? O'Bama's situation has shone a light on an omission. Up to this point, no official process to prove citizenship for Presidential candidates has been established. That has always been assumed. Since the consitution is silent on the process, it must fall to the states to fill the gap.

Arizona's solution is really the only practical way to go about plugging this hole. You simply can't run without proof. It should provide for consequences if citizenship documents are found to be fraudulent. Withholding electoral votes earned in the national election or delegate votes from primaries earned in should be part of that.