[philman_36]

Or do you really feel you understand the issue better than all those judges?

@Ankeny v Governor of Indiana

9 The Plaintiffs cite the “natural born Citizen” clause as Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution, but it is properly cited as Article II, Section 1, Clause 4.

@Article 2, Section 1, Clause 4

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

@Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5

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; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

How could the court make such an error? They made the same error many times over.

[DiogenesLamp]

How could the court make such an error? They made the same error many times over.

The legal system prefers to run in ruts left by previous legal decisions. They just let the wagon steer itself most of the time. It usually goes off the same cliff the previous wagon did.

[Harlan1196]

This is what the Indiana code referenced in Arkeny says:

“IC 3-8-1-6 President or Vice President
Sec. 6. (a) A candidate for the office of President or Vice President of the United States must have the qualifications provided in Article 2, Section 1, clause 4 of the Constitution of the United States.”

So he was simply referencing Indiana legal code.

Why the difference?

The Constitution as written does not mention “Clauses” - You will see Articles and Sections on the written document but not clauses. So the Founders did not identify specific requirements with specific clauses.

Here is how the Constitution is actually organized - the word clause is nowhere to be seen.

http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

Now the Constitution originally had 8 requirements in Art II section 1. Two of those requirements were removed by Constitutional Amendment. The 12A in 1804 removed the third requirement in the section. Since the word Clause was not part of the actual Constitution and was used informally to identify separated sections - some legal scholars took the AMENDED Constitution and ignored those sections that were removed through amendment. Remove the third requirement and the 5th becomes the 4th. When the practice of using the word Clause was initiated, some applied it to the Constitution as written while some applied it to the Constitution as amended - which is what Indiana does.