FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS Senate holds hearing on removing presidency restriction in Constitution

Supporters acknowledge that an amendment will be difficult to pass.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The Senate took a first step Tuesday toward opening the presidency to foreign-born citizens, including a particular Austrian-born actor who's running the nation's most populous state.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, held a two-hour hearing on his proposal, one of several in Congress to amend the Constitution by removing the requirement that only people born in the United States can be president.
A half-dozen members of Congress and three constitutional scholars testified in support of the idea, with some telling poignant stories of young children, adopted as infants from foreign countries, being unable to dream of becoming president one day.
Schwarzenegger
But the image, mostly unstated, that was hanging over the hearing and the whole nascent congressional movement was the well-sculpted one of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's been a U.S. citizen since 1983, conveniently fulfilling the 20-year requirement Hatch is proposing.
"This hearing would not be complete if the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger were not mentioned at least once," testified Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., a close friend of Schwarzenegger's who introduced a companion version of Hatch's proposal last month in the House of Representatives.
But Rohrabacher and others said there were many other politicians who would become eligible for the presidency if the Constitution were changed. Hatch noted that about 20 million people have become naturalized citizens since 1907.
"The United States is known as the land of opportunity, but there is one opportunity that these American citizens will never be able to attain under current law," Hatch said. "They can never hold the office of the president."
No vote is scheduled on the proposed amendments, and even supporters acknowledge that one will be difficult to pass. A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, then approval by 38 of the 50 state legislatures.
The Founding Fathers included the native-born provision in the Constitution because of fears that a wealthy European aristocrat with allegiances to another country could buy his way into control of the United States, said Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of law and political science at Yale University. The requirement is outdated and unfair, he said.
"America should be more than a land where every boy or girl can grow up to be governor," he said.
Schwarzenegger's name was mentioned only twice in the hearing. He has said he supports the idea of allowing immigrants to become president, but is focused on running California.
Schwarzenegger, 57, has been touted as a potential Republican presidential candidate if the Constitution were changed.
One proposed amendment, by Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., would make him wait, requiring that a person be a citizen for 35 years before becoming eligible for the presidency.
Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington research center, said he was tempted to suggest that an amendment shouldn't take effect for about 10 years to prevent people from supporting it to help a particular politician.