My turn
Legally, a woman can't be elected president
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Most people believe not only that the 19th Amendment permitted women the right to vote but that since women serve in Congress, the courts and other offices of government, the office of president of the United States has been de-genderized.
Not true. This important legal question exists now and has not been constitutionally addressed. The language and syntax of the 19th Amendment merely removed the barriers that prevented women from voting. It did not identify women to be qualified to become elected president.
The language is clear. The 19th Amendment says: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
We cannot read into the amendment something that is not there. Now, had the amendment said, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote or hold public office shall not be denied," it would have accomplished what the feminists think took place.
The Susan B. Anthony Amendment (as it was then known, because the words were actually drafted by the suffragist in 1875) passed in the House by a vote of 304 to 89. The Senate then passed it, 56 to 25. The text of both the House and Senate deliberately avoided any language that would allow or permit women the right to seek the highest office in the land! It was the considered opinion of senators on both sides of the aisle that if language de-genderized the presidency, the amendment's ratification by the necessary 36 states would be in great doubt.
Today's feminists believe the election process is an evolutionary process, legalized by common practice and that someday a woman will be president. They are convinced that since women have run for the office, the male-gendered presidential office has been neutered .
Not so. They will be challenged, and a Supreme Court ruling on the language will be necessary. At the very least a constitutional amendment to change the language will be required.
(Dick Marple lives in Hooksett.)
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As it stands now, I believe the Constitution does not allow for a woman president. I say this because, just as the drafters (who were all men) only gave men the right to vote it seems that they also intended that only a man could be president. This is shown graphically by Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Article II which make it clear, by the use (twenty times) of the masculine pronouns, “he” and “his”,
that the drafters wanted only a man to be president. Another point supporting this conclusion is who among the drafters would have thought that a woman could/should be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States?
So, just as it took a Constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote so too will it take another one to give women the right to serve as president.
The pronoun, "he" is also used one time in Sections 2 and 3 of Article 1 (dealing with who can be a representative and senator). So women are in fact also not permitted to be elected to either the House or Senate as well as the Presidency. The fact that women have served in both of those
chambers does not necessarily mean that the Constitution allows it, it just means that no one has ever raised the issue before.
I think that women should be allowed to run for and be elected to every office in the U.S. but I also believe that the Constitution must be adhered to.
To correct this, I would suggest that the Constitution be amended to say that, "Wherever herein the masculine pronouns "he" or "his" is used it will also include the corresponding feminine pronouns, "she" and "her""
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Thanks Dick, plus what Ken Ashford wrote about you over at his blog for rebuttal?
"In his editorial dated February 20, 2008 entitled "Legally, A Woman Can't be Elected President", former NH legislator Dick Marple makes a bold argument: that the 19th Amendment, which brought about women's sufferage, "did not identify women to be qualified to become elected president."
He's quite correct. To that I would add, the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") also does not grant woman the qualification to become president. Trust me, I looked. I read it closely -- it just ain't there.
In fact, carefully scrutiny of the entire U.S. Constitution reveals the same result: nowhere does it specifically say that women are qualified to be President.
True -- Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives a few requirements for presidential office: the "person" must be a U.S. citizen (or a natural born citizen), must be 35 or older, etc. But nowhere does it specifically say that a *woman* can be President.
Clearly, the Supreme Court will have to resolve whether or not a woman qualifies as a "person", but until they rule on this thorny legal question, I advise caution.
I was going to write a tongue-in-cheek, smart-ass "Letter To The Editor" in response to Mr. Marple's commentary, but then it dawned on me: there's nothing in the Constitution which permits me to do so. (The "free speech" clause of the First Amendment gets me close, but since it doesn't specifically permit me to write a Letter to the Editor to the Concord Monitor, I guess am out of luck). .."
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