If Picked, Granholm Would be 7th Foreign-Born Justice

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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."

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/05/if-picked-granholm-would-be-7th-foreignborn-justice.html