The inclusion of Canadian-born Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm on some short lists of potential Supreme Court nominees has raised awareness that there's no requirement that justices be born in the United States. The Constitution is silent on any requirement relating to place of birth or citizenship for judges -- or any other qualification such as age or legal background, for that matter.
Granholm was born in British Columbia in 1959 and moved with her family to California when she was four. She became a U.S. citizen in 1980, according to several biographical accounts.
If appointed and confirmed, Granholm would become the seventh foreign-born justice (among 110 through history.) The others were: James Wilson (born in Scotland in 1742); James Iredell (1751, England); William Paterson (1745, Ireland); David Brewer (1837, Asia Minor, now Turkey - son of an American missionary); George Sutherland (1862, England); and Felix Frankfurter (1882, Austria.)
For Frankfurter, the most recent foreign-born justice, that fact was never an issue when he was nominated and confirmed, says Supreme Court historian Mel Urofsky. "People who opposed him did so because he was Jewish or a liberal -- not because of where he was born," says Urofsky. "He was very gung-ho about America."
Frankfurter was a well-known and somewhat controversial figure, but only 12 days elapsed between his nomination by President Franklin Roosevelt and his unanimous confirmation by the Senate.
Born in Vienna, Frankfurter was 12 when his family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Lower East Side of New York. In an oral history for Columbia University, Frankfurter later said, "I never had heard a word of English spoken and never had spoken an English word when we arrived here." He recalled telling his parents one day after they arrived, "This man Laundry must be a very rich man because he has so many stores."
Just to be clear, Brewer was a natural born citizen and could have been President.
Posted by: Frank | May 22, 2009 at 10:38 AM