Posted on 01/18/2016 8:21:28 PM PST by SeekAndFind
While the nation's legal scholars differ over the exact meaning of the Constitution's requirement that a person must be a "natural born citizen" to become president, they're unanimous in saying Ted Cruz is wrong about an important point.
"As a legal matter, the question is quite straightforward and settled law," Cruz has said. "People will continue to make political noise about it, but as a legal matter it is quite straightforward.
In fact, the experts say, it is neither settled nor straightforward.
It's not settled -- because the Constitution does not define "natural born," a phrase that appears in the nation's founding document only once.
And though the federal courts have chewed on it from time to time, the U.S. Supreme Court has never officially said what it means.
It's not straightforward -- because at the time the Constitution was written there were different ideas about what the phrase meant and competing legal theories about where the power to confer citizenship came from.
The meaning of the term is so unsettled that scores of constitutional experts have been writing about it in the weeks since Donald Trump made it an issue in the 2016 campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
What Trust Fund Donnie says whether this year, 4 years ago or 20 years ago, simply doesn't matter to Trump cultists. He can advocate socialized medicine, contribute for decades to leftists, be "very pro-choice," support TARP, rip Antonin Scalia (within the last month) ....none of it matters.
Cults are like that. Take the Jehovah's Witnesses. They predicted the end times for decades. Thousands of their followers sold everything they own in 1975 because the Watchtower Society told them the world was ending. When it didn't happen, many left, but most stayed. The Watchtower Society fed them some line about "new light" and they bought it. They were 100% bought in.
"Oceaniea is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."
"Trust Fund Donnie is a conservative Republican. Trust Fund Donnie has always been a conservative Republican."
Hank
I’m sure the Framers were referring to a vaginal birth when they talked about NBC. They didn’t want any test tube babies to become President.
I wouldn’t say ‘ignore’ the Constitution.
Even in the article it says there is no concrete answer to the issue.
May not matter, though. Chances are fairly high that Obama's deal with the Iranians includes a clause that they wait until he's out of office to strike us. It will likely happen very soon after Jan 20. Whoever is CIC then - it will be "their fault" since it would have happened on "their watch". Fundamental change will then be complete.
However, today the media scrutinizes Cruz's right to run for president. They use innuendo and vague constitutional scholars as evidence. Where in the hell were they when Obama was first running for President.
The thing that has always puzzled me about Obama’s Birth Certificate is the following. He spent 100s of thousands of dollars fighting the release of it, why? When he did release it it came from the White House as an electronic document of controversy.
I was born in El Paso, Texas June 1, 1948. You can not have access to those records without my permission. I can write a letter to the Texas Department of Health and get it notarized by my bank for free. I could authorize anyone access to my records with such a letter. I could do this for the cost a sheet of paper, an envelope and a stamp. Why did Obama spend many thousands of dollars to not do this in Hawaii?
That’s what I think. I personally think his parents did just waltz across the border, no paperwork done at the time of his birth and his only citizenship was Canadian. Maybe not but it looks more like that every day.
NALC arrived at the same conclusion as a very large proportion of Freepers.
Nailed it.
Precedent and past-practices. Which is well accepted policy in government, especially for getting away with doing illegal things.
It certainly appears to be the case. Frankly, based on what’s known about his parents, they don’t appear to have been very responsible people, but impulsive & selfish. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
so why doesn’t Cruz supply the documentation and put an end to this? Why is it sealed?
“The paper says he was born in the USA.”
The real issue with Obama is that if his Step-Father adopted him he became an Indonesian Citizen. If Obama used that Indonesian citizenship to obtain a grant or scholarship as an international student then he was still an Indonesian citizen and not eligible. The Hawaiian birth certificate is irrelevant in that case. At least that is my understanding
That’s what makes me think it’s likely.
He was born of two US Citizen parents on US Territory, the Panama Canal Zone.
Circumstance identical to Goldwater being born of two US Citizens in Arizona Territory.
You can not just waltz into JFK for a flight to London without a passport. You get you passport locally via filling out the proper papers. My son was born in Reading England county Berkshire. I took his English Birth Certificate and my passport and wife's passport down to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square in London. A couple of weeks later I had his passport in the mail. I also obtained a British Passport for him which was quite legal via the same method. I submitted his British Birth Certificate with the mail in form from the local Post Office. A few weeks later he had his British Passport. Today he could not run for the Presidency of the United States as he is still a legal British Citizen. If he renounced his British Citizenship he could run for President tomorrow.
I had a fellow here the other day who told me that he's saving it as a killshot against his detractors.
It caused me to go get a beer...
What I find surprising is that he’s so arrogant about it. It kinda reminds me of Bill Ayers’ attitude. I can’t stand that. I certainly don’t have any respect for it.
(And I guarantee you that Cruz & his supporters could not care less as long as they get what they want. Screw America. Screw the laws.)
I may not be the sharpest tack in the drawer, but I do have a inquiring mind and "little grey cells".
I think Obama's original COB was fake. it was likely made sometime after or at birth, or perhaps later when he came to Hawaii. It was done to get him into US schools via American citizenship. Either that or something else could not be accomplished without citizenship.
I also think this was a common practice and done routinely at the time.
Obama could not get Hawaii to create a long form certificate so there was no certificate until such time as they did. It seems to me that it may have taken a new head of that department to replace the old before it would be done and that took time. So he stalled.
The reason why this was so important was that the lie has existed for his entire life, and as you said, even under the 20th century interpretation of natural born, Obama's mother did not qualify as Cruz's mother does.
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.
