“Congress seems to want to cure every ill known to man except unconstitutional government and high taxes.” ~Charley Reese
Friday, August 19, The Federal Election Commission released two draft advisory opinions indicating that it might allow a naturalized, Guyana-born American citizen to file papers and raise funds for run a Presidential run in 2012.
New York City lawyer Abdul Hassan, under this ruling, could conceivably be permitted to go through the initial steps to run for president. Hassan was born in the South American country of Guyana in 1974, and asked the FEC in July whether he could legally raise funds for his presidential candidacy.
Faced with the possibility of deciding a substantial question of a constitutional nature, one would think the FEC would simply tell him to, “get lost” and petition the judicial branch for such a substantial pivotal answer. Do you think they did that? No. . The hacks at FEC readily and willingly stepped up and responded, “although the Commission can respond to the questions asked in [his] advisory opinion, the Commission cannot make any determination as to whether [Hassan] can, as a naturalized citizen, serve as President.”
FEC told Hassan in a July 18 e-mail response that he could be a candidate, may solicit funds and would be required to file disclosure reports. But opinions differ on whether he may receive federal matching funds. In the FEC’s first draft opinion, they advise Hassan that he would not be able to receive matching funds citing the constitutional provision. Yet, in the second draft opinion, they dodge the question entirely, characterizing it as a, “hypothetical question.”
Will the FEC undertake the rare role of stepping on the courts and deciding such a large constitutional issue having perhaps only minor intersecting aspects with campaign finance law? Will the FEC pave the way for this constitutional provision to be ardently attacked?
There has been no shortage of legal commentators who have written extensively on why this constitutional provision should not stand, most notably from those not born here.The FEC’s decision will hardly be the last word on whether a person born outside the United States can be president.
