The Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, also known as the Hatch Amendment or Arnold Amendment, is a proposed United States constitutional amendment that would remove the Constitution's requirement that the president and vice president must be natural-born citizens. It was proposed in July 2003 by senator Orrin Hatch, and would allow naturalized citizens to run for either office when they have been citizens for 20 years. The nickname "Arnold Amendment" is a reference to the Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1983 and subsequently served as the governor of California from 2003 to 2011, as the proposal is widely seen as an overt attempt to make Schwarzenegger eligible for the presidency.
The text of the amendment reads as follows:
The amendment was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings were held on October 5, 2004, two months before the end of the second session of the 108th United States Congress, but no further action was taken. Gallup polls from 2003 and 2004 found that a majority of Americans were opposed to the amendment with 28% supporting it and 70% opposing it in 2003 and 31% supporting it and 67% opposing it in 2004.
See also Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories
United States nationality law
References
External links
Jerry Spangler: Hatch is pushing Arnold bill, Deseret Morning News October 7, 2004 Statement of Senator Orrin G. Hatch before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on “Maximizing Voter Choice: Opening the Presidency to Naturalized Americans”