Is John McCain eligible to be president?

It's an issue that has come up before with other candidates who have sought or considered the presidency.  It's the same issue that disqualifies California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming president.  The Constitution seems to require the president to be a "natural born citizen," so the Austrian-born bodybuilder turned actor turned California governor isn't eligible to run.

But is John McCain eligible?  On the surface, it seems that he is. The only requirements for the presidency are spelled out in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution.  The section reads: "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."

John McCain is well over 35 and he's lived in the United States for more than 14 years.  But here's the rub.  John McCain was not born in the United States.  He was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936.  So is he eligible to be president?  The answer may depend on how you interpret the Constitution. 

McCain's people would argue that the Constitution was not meant to exclude children of American citizens who happen to be abroad when they were born.  And since McCain's father, a naval officer, was stationed abroad by the U.S. government, it could not be the intention of the Constitution to disqualify the children of soldiers from becoming president.

"There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent," Catholic University associate law professor Sarah Duggin told the New York Times, which featured the story in its paper today.  Duggin, who has studied the issue extensively, said "It is not a slam-dunk situation."