"“If President Trump committed a heinous act worthy of disqualification, he should be disqualified for the sake of protecting our hallowed democratic system, regardless of whether citizens may wish to vote for him in Colorado,”
"“If President Trump committed a heinous act worthy of disqualification, he should be disqualified for the sake of protecting our hallowed democratic system, regardless of whether citizens may wish to vote for him in Colorado,”
A requirement can’t be strict if its own definition isn’t.
Yes it can, that’s literally the entire basis of constitutional law. We can bicker about the interpretation of the words, but the words themselves aren’t subject to change, and we make the requirement more strict through case law. That’s the whole reason we separate the legislature from the judiciary, the legislature create the laws, and the judiciary defines the edges of the interpretation of those laws.
If there’s a strict requirement that candidates be “scrombled” but no definition of what scrombled means, it never gets tested, and the only guy challenged on it is as a proxy for his being Black, there isn’t any hard rule at all.
Rules can only be strict if they have established parameters.
There are no defined parameters for “natural born”.
Could argue it only applies to clones.
But they do. The agencies that monitor such things have policies, and those are the defacto parameters until someone challenges them and we get a court ruling. That’s how things work in government, the legislative branch passes a law, the executive interprets the law, and the judicial branch hears cases when people disagree with the executive branch’s interpretation of the law.
What are the policies for what “natural born” means?
If there were clear parameters as you claim why did McCain supporters have to bother with Senate Resolution 511?
The resolution was made to prevent a legal challenge. Policy is not law, it’s policy, and policies can be challenged in the courts. So to avoid a potentially drawn out legal challenge, the Senate clarified their understanding of the law to avoid the whole thing.
They probably didn’t need to make the resolution in order to allow McCain to run, and the judicial branch likely would’ve found that McCain was, in fact, eligible, such a legal suit could stall or change (i.e. in the court of public opinion) election results, hence the resolution.
Why would they fear a challenge if the parameters were clear as you say?
Why wouldn’t they? Even something that seems like an open and shut case can take months or even years in court to resolve. That takes time away from campaigning, as well as likely reduced support for the accused. It’s the same idea as a smear campaign.
So to avoid drama, they made that resolution so his candidacy wouldn’t be questioned.
So there aren’t clear parameters.