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The lady Colombia Pres is a dual French natrional. Vaclev Havel of Czech republic is a US citizen, as was the Polish Prez. The GG of Canada has dual citizenship. Tons of countries allow their top dogs to have dual citizenship.
However, I see nothing wrong with excluding them if you have worries of apparent conflicts of interest (COI). One technicality is WHEN they need to shed the offending citizenship. Hayles did so AFTER being elected and sitting in Parliament (October). Sure, he started the process before Nomination Day and it took that time. However, we must realize that the US could have TURNED down the application and also that in Sept/Oct Hayles was STILL a naturalized US citizen sitting in parliament for that time!!! That is the clearest violation of the consitution we know of. Did not even need a judge to figure it out.
Here is my problem with the current regs in Jam. It does not exclude CWealth citizens...HOWEVER, the definition of Commonwealth has CHANGED since the 1960s. Back then what was meant is that citizens of countries that were former British subjects that swore loyalty to the same Queen, HAD no C.O.I.
Well, much has changed since then, as this sort of reciprocity has gone away (or never existed in the case of the Bahamas and maybe Canada, though it still exists in England). Furthermore, the status of many CW countries have changed. TnT is now a Republic and theoretically their Prez is a Foreign Power! Mozambique, which was never a Brit. colony, does not hafve English as an official language and never swore allegience to the Queen is now a member of the Commonwealth and technically their citizens can become MPs in Jamaica after 1 year of residence!!
Finally, given the visa exclusion situation in most cases, it is more relevant to include ONLY Caricom States in the exemption, not CW ones! The Constitution DOES need changing, even if we decide to maintain exclusions to most dual nationals!!!
One other point, there is no exclusion for green-card holders, but they enjoy most of the rights of US citizens and can run away at a moments notice. Same for permanent resident of other countries. Is that consistent?
However, I see nothing wrong with excluding them if you have worries of apparent conflicts of interest (COI). One technicality is WHEN they need to shed the offending citizenship. Hayles did so AFTER being elected and sitting in Parliament (October). Sure, he started the process before Nomination Day and it took that time. However, we must realize that the US could have TURNED down the application and also that in Sept/Oct Hayles was STILL a naturalized US citizen sitting in parliament for that time!!! That is the clearest violation of the consitution we know of. Did not even need a judge to figure it out.
Here is my problem with the current regs in Jam. It does not exclude CWealth citizens...HOWEVER, the definition of Commonwealth has CHANGED since the 1960s. Back then what was meant is that citizens of countries that were former British subjects that swore loyalty to the same Queen, HAD no C.O.I.
Well, much has changed since then, as this sort of reciprocity has gone away (or never existed in the case of the Bahamas and maybe Canada, though it still exists in England). Furthermore, the status of many CW countries have changed. TnT is now a Republic and theoretically their Prez is a Foreign Power! Mozambique, which was never a Brit. colony, does not hafve English as an official language and never swore allegience to the Queen is now a member of the Commonwealth and technically their citizens can become MPs in Jamaica after 1 year of residence!!
Finally, given the visa exclusion situation in most cases, it is more relevant to include ONLY Caricom States in the exemption, not CW ones! The Constitution DOES need changing, even if we decide to maintain exclusions to most dual nationals!!!
One other point, there is no exclusion for green-card holders, but they enjoy most of the rights of US citizens and can run away at a moments notice. Same for permanent resident of other countries. Is that consistent?
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