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The Contemporary Presidency : Constitutional Reform and the Presidency: The Recent Effort to Repeal the Natural‐Born Citizen Requirement
Author(s) -
TAGER MICHAEL
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2008.03661.x
Subject(s) - presidency , constitution , political science , law , repeal , presidential system , politics , house of representatives , public administration
As a result of the sudden political emergence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, high levels of immigration, and increased international adoptions, interest grew during the early twenty‐first century in repealing the Constitution's restriction on presidential eligibility to natural‐born citizens. A combination of academics, media outlets, a grassroots lobbying organization, and finally several members of Congress combined to push forward this constitutional revision to the presidency. This effort peaked along with Schwarzenegger's approval ratings in 2004 but has since lost momentum. The enormous difficulty of amending the Constitution rendered this sensible proposal an exercise largely in symbolic politics.