To the Editor:

Re “McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out” (news article, Feb. 28):

Surely “natural-born citizen” means a person who is born a citizen without a need to be “naturalized.” The phrase “native-born citizen” could easily have been used if anything else was intended.

There are many deliberately inexact phrases in the Constitution, such as “cruel and unusual” and “due process,” in need of interpretation and reinterpretation based on changing circumstances and ideas. This is not one of them.

Haskel Levi

Oakland, Calif., Feb. 28, 2008



To the Editor:

I do not understand the controversy over Senator John McCain’s citizenship. The following from the United States Code could not be clearer:

“[8 U.S.C. 1403](a) Any person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this chapter, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States.”

Where’s the question?

Richard Moseson

Bloomfield, N.J., Feb. 28, 2008



To the Editor:

Although Senator John McCain was born on a military base in the Canal Zone, he is a “natural born” citizen qualified to serve as president under the Constitution.