He’s not eligible. You can take the plain reading, which everyone has always understood to mean, “born on U.S. soil”. Yes there might be an exception for the children of military and diplomats stationed overseas, but Ted’s father was actually a Canadian citizen, and there’s no question that Ted acquired Canadian citizenship at birth. At the time of the framing, citizenship never came through the mother, only the father, so he wouldn’t even be a regular citizen much less a natural born citizen. You can also go to the intent of the provision which was clearly to prevent anyone with even a shred of potential for divided loyalties from ascending to the Presidency, and Ted was admittedly a dual citizen until less than two years ago. Not eligible. Not even a close case.
I don’t know if truth enters into this discussion but the truth is that Ted Cruz holds none of the Canadian opinions that seem to annoy Americans (neither do I and I live here in the socialist paradise to your north).
I am absolutely sure he does not want to hug trees, embrace Syrian refugees or cheer for Nickelback. Neither do I.
So the point is a narrow legal point, not some dramatic revelation about hidden values.
Ted Cruz is simply not a Canadian. The question about whether he is a “real” American is of course for you to decide, but it seems ironic to me that the only person willing to stand up for your constitution is then disqualified by it. Perhaps just being born there is not the only point that is important. Perhaps wanting to be there is more significant than where you started out.
However, carry on, this should kill off what’s left of the tourist industry.
Nice way to muddy the waters. IIRC, Raphael was a CUBAN citizen.
Chester Alan Arthur’s father wasn’t American.
Not quite. There is no question that Ted Cruz acquired dual citizenship at birth. Dual citizenship is rather common.
If one wants to argue that Cruz is disqualified because his parents were abroad when he was born, one has to be willing to also disqualify all the foreign born children of U.S. military families, all the foreign born children of U.S. business expats on their five year assignments to Rotterdam, London, or Tokyo, all the foreign born children of U.S. diplomats, missionaries, academics teaching abroad, etc. There are a LOT of such people. I don't think anyone wants to disqualify them, or seriously thinks the Constitution does so.
If one wants to disqualify Cruz because one parent was a foreign citizen at the time of his birth, one will similarly have to disqualify many people. No one wants to do that. The lynch-Cruz-crowd is ciphering out mystical readings of 18th century notions of "natural born" and coming up with the idea that citizenship in such cases would depend on the father, not the mother. So on that line of analysis, Cruz is disqualified if we are prepared, and the Supreme Court is prepared, to uphold the legal inferiority of women -- not, mind you, based on anything the constitution actually says, but on the basis of creative extemporization of 18th century common law, never tested or litigated in 230 years, but now to be imposed by the courts in an ad hoc effort to disqualify a single candidate.
All this involves far too much stretching to pass the laugh test. The trick is how to singularly disqualify Cruz without tying oneself up in knots that will boomerang on many others. It can't be done.
In point of fact, the Constitution does not define "natural born citizen." The intent of that provision was to prevent would-be royalists from importing European nobility, naturalizing them, and making them president. We don't need crazy house mirrors and strained interpretations for that purpose. The simple and robust definition of "natural born citizen" is "citizen at birth." That is all that is needed. On that standard, Cruz qualifies.
Yes, I know, some adventurous democratic scholars are now arguing that there is a distinction between "natural born citizen" and a citizen "automatically naturalized at birth." That is the kind of nonsense on stilts that is being invented. Enough. If you have been a citizen since birth, you are eligible to run for president.