Suppose that one day the president of the U.S. announces that although he was born in the U.S., is older than 35, and has been a resident for more than 14 years, he is a humanoid of an extraterrestrial species and hopes that this trifling difference will not prejudice Americans against him or his politics. I note that the relevant part of the Constitution, article II, section 1, paragraph 5, begins “No person except…”
A quick review of some constitutional authorities persuades me that the founding fathers failed to give any consideration whatsoever to the possibility that the U.S. electorate might one day bestow the presidency on a boyish, likable creature from another planet. (And yes, I realize that if he/she/it were born on earth–I’m seeing Marin County, although there’s an argument to be made for New Jersey–he’d be terrestrial. But we’re talking about a member of an extraterrestrial species.) We’re therefore forced to fall back on our own resources. Who or what legally qualifies as a person? Black’s Law Dictionary (1999) defines a person as:
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Strict constructionists at this point might reason as follows: The plain and simple meaning of person is a human being–that is, a member of the species Homo sapiens (to be strictly taxonomically accurate, Homo sapiens sapiens, although I suppose in our tolerant era we’d let the Neanderthals in). A member of an extraterrestrial species, however humanoid in appearance, would not be a member of H. sapiens and thus would be ineligible for the presidency, although I’m betting he could still make a good living in TV news.
