Unfortunately, the founding fathers didn’t spell this out. Despite what Cruz says about the subject, it has never been tested I n the courts and even if it is, there is nothing in the Constitution that defines it one way or the other. My guess is it will never be ruled on by the Supreme Court and any U.S. Citizen will still be allowed to run and be elected as President.
When I was a kid I seem to remember the requirement that a person had to be born 2nd or 3rd (not sure) to be President. Does anyone remember that?
It is incomprehensible to me why the framers would have inserted the language: “Natural born citizen” unless they intended it to mean born on the soil of the newly born nation.
Can anyone seriously contend they meant to include people born in the British Empire (Canada)—which was still our most dangerous enemy, in that brief lull between The War of Independence and the War of 1812 (when the Brits burned Washington) under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES?
Cruz’s argument now is so hypocritical as to be laughable. It speaks volumes about his character that he can forget all his alleged constitutional principles for the sake of personal ambition.
They didn't spell out much of their use of ordinary language, but in this case they did.
In their attempt to assure the CiC would not be subject to foreign influence due to birth or parentage, they specified NBC for this single, undoubtedly most important government office; and by doing so clearly indicated the highest form of citizenship.
The USSC sometime shortly thereafter stipulated the highest form was birth within the U.S. to two citizen parents.
Hard-wired into the {United States} Supreme Court's DNA is the notion that the court doesn't reach out to decide a constitutional issue if it can resolve a case by interpreting a statute. "The court will not anticipate a question of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it," is how Justice Louis D. Brandeis expressed this principle of judicial restraint 80 years ago in a concurring opinion to which the court often makes reference.