Re "Legally, a woman can't be elected president" (Monitor Opinion page, Feb. 20): Dick Marple states that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution does "not identify women to be qualified to become elected president." True enough, the second article of the Constitution does, and it doesn't say anything about race or gender! You have to be a natural born citizen of the United States, 35 years old and a resident for 14 years. If anything, the candidate who might have a problem here is John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal zone. However, when candidates file to be on the ballot for the New Hampshire primary, they have to prove that they can legally be president. I'm sure our secretary of state has checked that out.

As for the specific wording of the 19th Amendment, it is virtually the same as the 15th Amendment. The big difference is that the 15th deals with race, the 19th with gender. Neither one specifically says the impacted group has the right to hold office. There was never an explicit barrier to holding office, you just couldn't vote.

Mr. Marple also states that if a woman were elected president she would challenged in the Supreme Court, she would lose, and be tossed out of office. Can anybody imagine this nightmare scenario where five Supreme Court Justices huddle up and have the unmitigated gall to veto the will of the majority of the electorate! Oh, I guess you can.

JAMES K. COLE

Concord