Associates
Four Gibson Dunn Associates Represent McCain in Citizenship Suits
Posted Sep 19, 2008, 05:36 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Four associates at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., have racked up a string of victories as they fight for John McCain’s right to be president.
The associates are volunteering their time to defend claims that McCain’s birth to a Navy officer in the Panama Canal Zone makes him ineligible under the Constitution to be president, the American Lawyer reports. Their latest win came on Tuesday when a federal judge in San Francisco said the plaintiff, an elector pledged to third-party candidate Alan Keyes, did not have standing to challenge McCain’s placement on the ballot. The judge also found that the case lacked merit.
Litigation associate Matthew McGill said during oral arguments that Congress should be allowed to decide the merits of McCain’s citizenship without judicial intervention, the story says. He and his fellow associates had noted that the Senate unanimously approved a resolution in April that affirmed McCain's citizenship.
"It's inconceivable to me that the framers of the Constitution could have intended to exclude a citizen from the office of president for no reason other than at the time of his birth, his parents were deployed overseas in the service of the nation," McGill told American Lawyer. "I mean, come on!"
The article identified the other associates on the team as Joshua Hess, Amir Tayrani and Aaron Lindstrom. Partner Theodore Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general, also lent his expertise to case.
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