Constitutional Amendment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Constitutional Amendment - Essay Example Though America was built by immigrants and is billed as the ‘land of opportunity,’ there is one job opportunity that is not open to foreigners, or those born to U.S. citizens who happen to be traveling at the time of their birth. The office of the presidency is available to natural-born citizens. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents discrimination in the hiring process but the top job in the White House is the one exception, hardly a shining example for a country that prides itself on diversity and tolerance and backs this concept with legislation meant to ensure these values are made into law. The provision in the Constitution is outdated and should be amended. According to the United States Constitution, Article II Section I, â€Å"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† (United States Constitution). This phrase means that persons who are not born in the U.S., whether they were adopted as a small infant by American parents or are a child of Americans but born outside the country are ineligible for the presidency. Many people believe that this is patently unfair and should be changed by amending the Constitution. The first of many arguments for such an amendment is located in the phrase in question, ‘at the time of the adoption of this Constitution.’ This implies that though the Founding Fathers believed it to be a good idea at the time, they did not intend for this clause to never be amended. During the decade of the 1990’s, American parents adopted approximately 100,000 children who were born in countries outside the U.S. This foreign adoption trend is rising because the U.S. is a very wealthy nation proportionate to many other regions of the world and adoption has become an increasingly acceptable method by which to