The book did, indeed, look interesting. So I bought it and put it on my Kindle. Browsing around there is one chapter on the NBC clause (chapter 5). Wexler refers to the phrase in the hyphenate which, to purists, will not be satisfactory.
And then Wexler writes this:
Quote:
Among the constitutional provisions that create officer qualifications, the one proverbial turd in the punchbowl is the natural-born citizen clause of Article II: No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President. The clause, described by critics as “highly objectionable,” “inane,” “blatantly discriminatory,” “morally dubious,” and a “lowdown dirty shame,” is the only place in the Constitution—indeed, perhaps, in all of American law—where a distinction is drawn between naturalized citizens and those born in the United States.
As is often the case, the framers didn’t say much about why they put the natural-born citizen clause into the Constitution. The source of the restriction, though, is generally traced back to a letter that John Jay, who would become the nation’s first chief justice, sent to George Washington in 1787. Jay wrote: “Permit me to hint whether it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government and to declare expressly that the commander in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born citizen.” It’s been said that Jay was responding to rumors that a foreign prince, such as Baron Von Steuben, the Prussian aristocrat who helped train the Revolutionary army, would be asked to serve as president. As the great nineteenth-century scholar and Supreme Court justice Joseph Story put it, the clause was intended to cut off “all chances for ambitious foreigners, who might otherwise be intriguing for the office.”
The clause is flawed for a whole of bunch of different reasons. For one, it’s hypocritical. Notice how the clause makes an exception for non-natural-born citizens at the time the Constitution was adopted; the United States didn’t have a natural-born citizen president until Martin Van Buren took office in 1836. The clause also doesn’t solve the problem it supposedly identifies. If someone who isn’t a natural-born citizen can’t be president, why can one of these untrustworthy scoundrels serve as secretary of state or chief justice of the Supreme Court or chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or ambassador to the United Nations?
Wexler, Jay (2011-11-01). The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions (Kindle Locations 1372-1390). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.
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Gerry Nance (ravenborder/silverbull8) says he read it. He commented:
