Free Republic

Conservative talker Glenn Beck rallied Saturday with Sen. Ted Cruz, bestowing an endorsement in glowing terms and warning darkly of a future under Cruz's chief GOP rival, Donald Trump. "In 40 years of broadcast I have never endorsed any candidate.. I don't trust any of the weasels no matter how good they are," Beck said. But his support for Cruz was unabashed. "I have prayed for the next George Washington. I believe I have found him." A protester dressed as a Canadian Mountie held a sign "accusing" Sen. Ted Cruz of liking Nickelback, an oft-maligned Canadian grunge band. He and...

A Republican attorney in Illinois, a supporter of Ben Carson, on Friday filed a motion with the Illinois State Board of Elections to have Sen. Ted Cruz's name removed from the official Republican primary ballot for the Illinois GOP presidential primary set for March 15. The legal challenge confirms fellow candidate Donald Trump's argument that the issue of eligibility to be president under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution will dog Cruz as the Texas senator pursues the GOP nomination for president, and possibly a subsequent White House bid. The motion from Lawrence J. Joyce, who makes his living...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump reportedly said he might file a lawsuit over fellow GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’s (R-TX) eligibility to be President of the United States. “I’ve said Ted has a lot of problems — number one, Canada. He could run for the Prime Minister of Canada and I wouldn’t even complain because he was born in Canada,” Trump said during a campaign event in Iowa. “The Democrats are going to sue if he ever got the nomination within two days. There have already been two lawsuits filed, but they don’t have standing. I have standing to...

Jeff [rey Lord] is calling for a Trump-Cruz ticket. Maybe Jeff didn't get the memo, but Trump has been arguing that Cruz isn't qualified to be President because of his Canadian birth. In which case, if Cruz isn't eligible to be President then how can he be eligible to be VP?

The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The poll was conducted by telephone with live interviewers January 18-21, 2016 among a random national sample of 1,009 registered voters (RV). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The Republican presidential nomination race has settled into two distinct tiers. Four candidates -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson -- command nearly three-quarters of the party's support. The rest are just trying to break through. Here's how the race stands according to the latest Fox News national poll on the 2016 election: Trump receives 34 percent among Republican primary voters, Cruz gets 20 percent, Rubio 11 percent, and Carson 8 percent....

The recent controversy over the eligibility of Ted Cruz for the office of the Presidency is one of those conundrums embedded in the U.S. Constitution. That august document is full of ambiguous words and phrases that challenge even the strictest and most principled interpreters. The phrase "natural born citizen" could mean any number of things. For example, at the time of birth: 1. At least one parent is a U.S. citizen. 2. Both parents are U.S. citizens. 3. The birth occurs in a state of the United States. 4. The birth occurs in a state of the United States or...

53% of GOP primary voters say someone born in another country should not be allowed to serve as President, to only 28% who say they're alright with that.

Canadian Citizenship Through Birth in Canada Written by Henry J. Chang Overview Prior to January 1, 1947, there was no citizenship statute in existence. Canada was in a curious position of being a nation without citizens. This was corrected on January 1, 1947 with the Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c.15 (the "Former Act"). The Former Act recognized Canadian citizenship for the first time.... .......... Both statutes are discussed below. Persons Born in Canada After February 14, 1977 Section 3(1)(a) of the Current Act states that anyone born in Canada after February 14, 1977 is considered a Canadian citizen. This...

It is critical for U.S. citizens to understand the meaning of the Constitution’s term “natural born citizen” when choosing a prospective Commander-in-Chief. The candidate must be free from all possibility of foreign loyalties through either his or her parentage or place of birth. Why is the adoption of a narrow interpretation of “natural born citizen” essential to the future of our nation? If it is sufficient for a person to have only one U.S. citizen parent in order to be considered a “natural born” citizen, then dual citizens could become President, including dual citizens of countries hostile to the United...

After many years of debate, the meaning of "natural born citizen" remains unsettled. During last week's Republican presidential debate, Ted Cruz said it's "really quite clear" he is eligible to run for president even though he was born in Canada, because his mother was a U.S. citizen. His rival Donald Trump insisted "there is a serious question" as to whether Cruz qualifies as "a natural born citizen," one of the constitutional requirements for the presidency. Here is a sentence I never thought I'd type: Donald Trump is right. Cruz describes a consensus that does not exist. The Texas senator is...

I was told today that Ted Cruz's conservatism was moot because he is not eligible to run for president. I have also been told by others that true conservatives cannot win a general election. If that is true, then there is no winning, for even if you prevail by sacrificing values and principles to enlarge your "tent", you have won nothing. The truth is, regardless of Cruz's status, Cruz's conservatism is not moot anymore than the Founders ideas were moot. For if values and principles are moot, you can follow the law precisely and you have nothing. The Founders parted...

If Ted Cruz is a “natural-born citizen,” eligible to be president, what was all the fuss about Obama being born in Kenya? No one disputed that Obama’s mother was a U.S. citizen.Cruz was born in Canada to an American citizen mother and an alien father. If he’s eligible to be president, then so was Obama — even if he’d been born in Kenya.As with most constitutional arguments, whether or not Cruz is a “natural-born citizen” under the Constitution apparently comes down to whether you support Cruz for president. (Or, for liberals, whether you think U.S. citizenship is a worthless thing...

Some folks, including Don Trump, think Senator Cruz is not entitled to run for president because he is not a "natural born" citizen. This matter was debated when John McCain ran for the office, yet it seems that the correct answers are still not generally appreciated. So... ...is Senator Ted Cruz qualified to be president? Yes, because the 1790 Immigration Act declares flatly that people in his circumstances are "natural-born" citizens. That law followed the adoption of the constitution by about two years, and some of the founding fathers of the nation were in the Congress at the time. One...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is surrounded by "varsity" candidates and vows to have an honest convention. But the GOP leader refused to get involved in the debate over whether or not Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a "natural born" citizen. Time asked Priebus, "A topic in the news today Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Is he constitutionally eligible to be President?" "Listen, I don't get involved," Priebus responded. "I'm not going to get in the middle of all these candidate issues. It’s a bad place for me to...

(snip) The problem is not, as some commentators have claimed, a legal doctrine known as "standing" -- a rule that requires that a person who comes to court must have a proper legal interest at stake in the litigation. Rather, the biggest barrier is a principle of judicial restraint known as "the political question doctrine." A key idea underlying this doctrine is that the Constitution itself, in its text or spirit, sometimes takes a certain sort of constitutional question away from ordinary courts and makes some other decision-maker the real judge -- a special court for a special question. In...

Ted Cruz's Amazing Stances on Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment from 2011 to 2015.

The past eight or so years should have proven conclusively that the various strains of birthers out there do not know about which they speak. Nevertheless, this has not stopped them from continuing in their ways. The latest speculation I've seen surrounds the Naturalization Act of 1790 passed by the First Congress. Here is the relevant portion: And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose...

Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe’s view of the Constitution and the “natural born” citizen issue seems to blow with the political winds.  Why has his view completely switched from 2008?  Is it because, as Sen. Ted Cruz said at the Republican debate on Jan. 14, Tribe is a “left-wing judicial activist” and “a major Hillary Clinton supporter?”  Whatever the reason, Tribe’s current assertions about the issue are wrong and Donald Trump may want to think twice before he again cites Tribe as an “expert”.In a prior article, I explained the legal interpretation of the requirement in Article II, Sec. 1...

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...