I think that the comic established at one point that Superman was legally a US citizen, but was it ever clarified in Lois and Clark?

It was not.

There's that one ep where everyone in Metropolis turns against him and he's swarmed by people with paperwork... They want to know if he's got a pilot's license, etc. It's mentioned there that he's an "illegal alien," and I don't think it's ever mentioned again.

It's possible that was quietly taken care of sometime after that ep, but it's also possible that people just went back to ignoring it (the same way they ignore his vigilante status, since he was also never sworn in as an agent of the law).

Paul

Thanks, that's what I thought.

Well, I don't know about Superman, but Clark said he voted in elections, so Clark must be a citizen. Or was he voting illegally?

Clark, the legal child of two US citizens, is a citizen.

Superman, refugee from Krypton, is an illegal alien.

The adoption is (probably) fraudulent however since the Kents claimed that Clark was the child of a relative I think. Adoption isn't an automatic way to get citizenship also, I remember a series of blogs by David Weber when he and his wife adopted overseas and had a lot of problems getting permission to bring the child into the US.

Adoption laws are very different in 2006 from what they were in 1965. I would bet the adoption is legal.

Even though there are indications that it was done differently in Lois and Clark (and in Smallville for that matter) it is my pet theory that Clark's adoption was perfectly legal. If Martha and Jonathan declared Clark a foundling (which he techinically was) and adopted him as such (there are specific legal steps in getting foundlings birth certificates and Social Security Numbers) then there is no question about his citizenship in my mind. So perhaps there would be some suspicion from Bureau 39 concerning a foundling and the ship they had, but as I said this is my pet theory and so I choose to ignore Bureau 39.

As to the matter of Superman's citizenship-- Wendy Richards has a brilliant story Green Card which explores the question of Superman's citizenship.

I read another one that recently (I can't remember who it was by) that had Trask trying to kill Superman and claiming he was an illegal alien and the Secret Service showing up and stopping Trask and saying that Superman had been declared a citizen during Reagan's (or was it Nixon's?) administration.

Thank you! Was looking for Wendy's "Green Card", (Read it once a few years ago). I'm horrable at remembering names.

Hehehe!

I found proof. In season one of Smallville at one point Chloe is looking into Clark's adoption and the reason for adoption is listed as "Found alone. Unable to locate parents" Clark was declared a foundling and that is how the Kent's adopted him.

So, may not apply to Lois and Clark exactly, but in Smallville, Clark is a legal US citizen, adopted legally.

But in the last new episode of Smallville, Clark accuses his mother of forging his adoption papers and an earlier episode, some seasons back, had a bogus adoption agency involved.

I suspect we can probably go with Clark being a citizen simply because 1966 was simpler times. He was a foundling, legally adopted.

Read Green Card. Does anyone know the other story Katy is talking about where the Secret Service shows up and says Superman is a citizen.

It's Escaping Trask by Richard Frantz, Jr.

Good story!

'Toc

A belated thought on this - while Clark himself may or may not be a US citizen, any child definitely will be - which gives us the interesting possibility of a super-powered son or daughter running for political office... Not quite sure why anyone with super-powers would WANT to be president, but I'm sure that someone could come up with some ideas.

In the US, he would not be eligible to run for president as any candidate must be born in the country. This was put into the Constitution back in 1787 because of fears that a foreign born person, particularly British, could swoop in and take over the country. It's probably an outdated concept now since we're very much a nation of immigrants, but it would be very hard to pass an amendment.

Superman would be eligible to run for any other political office, though. Clark could probably run for president but I doubt he would because of the scrutiny presidential candidates are put through. The press would find everything, including any shady things that may have happened in the adoption process.

RL wrote:

RL, I assume the "he" to whom you refer would be Clark (Superman), and in that case you would be correct, except the Vice President must meet the same qualifications for office. (Interestingly enough, that is not explicitly stated in the body of the Constitution, but has been ruled so by the courts, since the Veep could become First at any time).

As to the immigrant portion of your comment, that is also right on the money. (My maternal grandmother passed through Ellis Island from Italy way back when.) But you might not be aware that, in the southwestern portion of the country, someone who advocated an amendment which denied citizenship to babies born in the US whose mother was an illegal would receive a great deal of support.

Such a campaign would polarize the country, of course, but such is politics.