[Cboldt]

To the extent that people read and apply the law, Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 815 (1971) is very informative regarding citizenship on birth abroad. If the principles referred to in that case are applied to Cruz, he is a statutory or naturalized citizen of the US, not a natural born citizen.

Courts don't faithfully apply law or precedent. Courts are all about obtaining desired outcomes, so it's anybody's guess how a court would rule on the case, if it even took it (I think the court would punt to Congress).

But at least for academic purposes, it's interesting to read the history of citizenship law.

[RummyChick]

That case was argued about in Nguyen. It comes up during the discussion of NBC.

[exit82]

Thank you for the link to Rogers v. Bellei.

I read it in its entirety last night. The Court was split 5-4 (sound familiar?) but the scholarly arguments both for and against were quite illuminating.

I thank you for bringing that to our attention.

[Oklahoma]

Statutory and naturalized are two terms with different meanings. Both natural born and naturalized are citizenship defined by statutes made laws by congress. The law in 1970 will apply in this case.