Posted on 01/09/2016 12:13:42 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Unless he himself becomes president, Donald Trump should serve in the next administration as Special Envoy for Getting People to Dig Up Birth Certificates for Public Consumption, because he's hella good at it. His speculation about Obama's birthplace prompted the President to release his long-form birth certificate in 2011. And now, after only a few days of muttering about Cruz's eligibility to become president, he's prompted Cruz to release… his mother's?
Wait, it makes sense.
As best we can tell there are two main strands of Cruz birtherism. One is that the Supreme Court has never directly ruled on the meaning of the Constitution's "natural born citizen" requirement. Even though it is understood by experts to mean "U.S. citizen at birth," as Cruz was, some opportunistic critics, such as Trump, have been warning about the phrase's not-totally-determined meaning and how that could open the door to distracting legal cases if Cruz becomes the nominee.
The other is that maybe Cruz was not a U.S. citizen at birth, because his mother did not meet the requirements for transmitting citizenship to her child. As we wrote yesterday, "Those born abroad between 1952 and 1986 earned U.S. citizenship at birth if their parents were married and one parent was a U.S. citizen who spent 10 years in the United States with five of those coming after age 14. Cruz's parents were married, and his mother meets the citizenship requirements." This gives Cruz birthers another person's life to inspect: that of Eleanor Cruz, the senator's mother. Democratic congressman Alan Grayson (yes, there are Democratic Cruz birthers) has said that the eligibility suit he's supposedly prepping against Cruz would focus on Eleanor. As U.S. News reported this week:.....
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
It’s not a problem for me, as you can tell if you read my posts.
I just don’t like the hypocrisy of the Trump followers who who make much of Cruz’s former dual citizenship while ignoring Trumps own EXISTING dual citizenship!
See reply #169.
Trump would be better advised to deal forthrightly with HIS own CURRENT dual nationality issue before he goes after somebody else’s past dual nationality.
Which brings us right back to your initial contention, natural born [citizenship is] defined by statutes made laws by congress.
Is there any restriction on Congress, or can it theoretically pass an unconstitutional "definition of NBC" law?
By way of hypothetical example, if Congress passed a statute saying Vladimir Putin was an NBC, would that be constitutional? If you view that as ex post facto or naturalization, not natural, then hypothesize Congress decides to be friendly with Mexico, and grants statutory citizenship to persons born in Mexico, to Mexican parents. I know, that's a reach (now, maybe not a generation from now), but we need some hook to debate from.
If there is a restriction on NBC, what is it, and where does it come from? By your terms of this debate, you can't resort to common law, because statutory law is superior.
I love your posting lib hit pieces from Slate. It paints you in such a fine manner. Here’s an article posted yesterday from Breitbart that’s much better on the subject. You might want to read it and actually contemplate what it’s saying: http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/01/07/nolte-the-cultural-and-media-reality-of-the-cruz-crisis/
Cruz was born a Canadian and ultimately renounced his Canadian citizenship and, thereby, became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In order for any alien to gain citizenship in the US, he or she must swear an oath of citizenship and renounce any allegiances to any other countries that they may have formerly been a citizen of. This is called “naturalization” and it is not the same as “natural born”. By renouncing his Canadian citizenship, he became a naturalized citizen.
I never said that Trump was not or is not a Natural Born Citizen. In fact I have said may times that he is.
Notwithstanding that fact, trump also British nationality, due not to the operation of US law, but by the operation of UK law, and does to this very day. He can have his British passport for the asking.
Let me ask you this, do you think the US would allow another country to determine our citizenship requirements? Neither do we have the right to determine who or how Britain considers its nationals.
And, if Trump can be a natural born citizen of the United States and also simultaneously hold British nationality, why do you guys make such a big deal out of Cruz's former dual nationality? Isn't that just a wee bit hypocritical?
Actually that's a good question. I would say yes. But, prior to 2009, this might not have been as clear as it is today.
Any question the British nationality of children born to British mothers before 1983 was settled by the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2009 which provides clarification that any person born outside the UK to a British mother may register as a British citizen by descent if that person was born before 1 January 1983. Trump was born in 1944 which is before 1983.
He can file the form to pick up his UK passport at any time.
Would that grandchild (who is without a doubt a citizen of the US, Congress certainly has that power) be an NBC, assuming Congress passes a law that says that grandchild is born a US citizen.
In logic, illogical premises lead the way to illogical and undesirable conclusions.
You can say that again! And take it to heart next time.
Yes, yes, yes!
I don't understand why this is such a hard issue for folks to wrap their minds around.
Like it or not since the Constitution didn’t define natural born we are left with Congress defining and redefining the term as they deemed necessary in the years since. That means they could come up with any cockeyed definition they want, like it or not.
What a CROCK!! You need help.
***I think Cruz IS a natural-born US citizen.***
Also culturally AMERICAN, not like the current occupant of the WH who is culturally Indonesian moslem.
I will answer that question. Yes, this child is a natural born citizen of the US.
He or she may also be a dual national under the laws of Ireland, but that ought to be of no concern to the United States.
Imagine the nonsense scenario where North Korea enacted legislation that extended North Korean citizenship to anyone born in the United States or to a US citizen parent. That would give every American dual citizenship. Would we all become ineligible to become President in such a case? That’s clearly absurd.
And we would not need to revoke North Korean citizenship, either. We would only need ignore it. Ted Cruz did not need to revoke his Canadian dual dual citizenship either. Neither does Donald Trump need to revoke his descent-derived British nationality. Both are US citizens by birth and that is the end of it. Whatever laws foreign jurisdictions may enact are strictly their business, and none of ours.
It seems like a natural born citizen would never have to renounce their citizenship to a foreign country.
Natural Law as defined by what or whom?
The more people question my questions, the more questions I have.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.