Posted on 01/06/2016 8:21:08 AM PST by justlittleoleme
As we head into a potential government shutdown over the funding of Obamacare, the iconoclastic junior senator from Texas -- love him or hate him -- continues to stride across the national stage. With his presidential aspirations as big as everything in his home state, by now many know what has never been a secret: Ted Cruz was born in Canada.
(Full disclosure: I'm Canadian myself, with a green card. Also, Cruz has been a friend since his days representing Texas before the Supreme Court.)
But does that mean that Cruz's presidential ambitions are gummed up with maple syrup or stuck in snowdrifts altogether different from those plaguing the Iowa caucuses? Are the birthers now hoist on their own petards, having been unable to find any proof that President Obama was born outside the United States but forcing their comrade-in-boots to disqualify himself by releasing his Alberta birth certificate?
No, actually, and it's not even that complicated; you just have to look up the right law. It boils down to whether Cruz is a "natural born citizen" of the United States, the only class of people constitutionally eligible for the presidency. (The Founding Fathers didn't want their newly independent nation to be taken over by foreigners on the sly.)
What's a "natural born citizen"? The Constitution doesn't say, but the Framers' understanding, combined with statutes enacted by the First Congress, indicate that the phrase means both birth abroad to American parents -- in a manner regulated by federal law -- and birth within the nation's territory regardless of parental citizenship. The Supreme Court has confirmed that definition on multiple occasions in various contexts.
There's no ideological debate here: Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and former solicitor general Ted Olson -- who were on opposite sides in Bush v. Gore among other cases -- co-authored a memorandum in March 2008 detailing the above legal explanation in the context of John McCain's eligibility. Recall that McCain -- lately one of Cruz's chief antagonists -- was born to U.S. citizen parents serving on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone.
In other words, anyone who is a citizen at birth -- as opposed to someone who becomes a citizen later ("naturalizes") or who isn't a citizen at all -- can be president.
So the one remaining question is whether Ted Cruz was a citizen at birth. That's an easy one. The Nationality Act of 1940 outlines which children become "nationals and citizens of the United States at birth." In addition to those who are born in the United States or born outside the country to parents who were both citizens -- or, interestingly, found in the United States without parents and no proof of birth elsewhere -- citizenship goes to babies born to one American parent who has spent a certain number of years here.
That single-parent requirement has been amended several times, but under the law in effect between 1952 and 1986 -- Cruz was born in 1970 -- someone must have a citizen parent who resided in the United States for at least 10 years, including five after the age of 14, in order to be considered a natural-born citizen. Cruz's mother, Eleanor Darragh, was born in Delaware, lived most of her life in the United States, and gave birth to little Rafael Edward Cruz in her 30s. Q.E.D.
So why all the brouhaha about where Obama was born, given that there's no dispute that his mother, Ann Dunham, was a citizen? Because his mother was 18 when she gave birth to the future president in 1961 and so couldn't have met the 5-year-post-age-14 residency requirement. Had Obama been born a year later, it wouldn't have mattered whether that birth took place in Hawaii, Kenya, Indonesia, or anywhere else. (For those born since 1986, by the way, the single citizen parent must have only resided here for five years, at least two of which must be after the age of 14.)
In short, it may be politically advantageous for Ted Cruz to renounce his Canadian citizenship before making a run at the White House, but his eligibility for that office shouldn't be in doubt. As Tribe and Olson said about McCain -- and could've said about Obama, or the Mexico-born George Romney, or the Arizona-territory-born Barry Goldwater -- Cruz "is certainly not the hypothetical 'foreigner' who John Jay and George Washington were concerned might usurp the role of Commander in Chief."
CRUZ is eligible to be president. To bring up otherwise is a weak attack. It has been brought up time and time again. It will continue to be brought up when an opponent (Republican or Democrat) feels threatened by CRUZ and has little to attack him on.
It was posted by Jim Robinson back in 2013
http://therightscoop.com/heres-the-video-of-trump-saying-in-september-tedcruz-was-perfectly-eligible-to-run-for-president/
I totally believe Cruz is qualified. But I do think that, like now, the mere mention of this issue has spurred discussion, so it would be in the general. There are so many libs who are still mad because Obama was challenged, this is their chance to fight back.
Do I think it would stop Cruz, no. But he needs to be ready for this fight because it would happen.
“love him or hate him”?
Who in their right mind would hate him, except liberals, lefties, and Putinistas. But then their “right” state of mind borders on insanity.
Don't forget purist libertarians. Anything that even remotely smacks of morality is anathema to them, and Cruz brings this in buckets (as he should - everything is a moral issue.)
All I can say, is these cats had better be right.
Let’s ignore the fact that we do not know if Mom Cruz took Canadian citizenship while she was there. I mean, it was like 4 years or so. That would complicate things, eh?
We can also ignore the fact that Cruz had, evidently duel citizenship (hopefully) when he was elected to the Senate, although it was unknown at the time. That is not helpful.
Are his family records open or sealed? That should spell the end of any controversy, I’m thinking.
We know for a fact that the dems are not the chickensh*ts that the GOP are when it comes to this; they are ready to go to court right now about it. Notice how they are not one bit concerned about offending Hispanics.
I’m not real interested in someone from the 9th Circus deciding he is ineligible and thus, allowing the GOP to choose its replacement candidate: Jeb Bush
bkmrk
I left out the islamo-nazis.
Thank you, great summation. May everyone read it and comprehend.
Carson and Fiorina's steep fall have been mostly taken advantage of by Cruz and Trump. They are clearly the two leaders, with Trump well out in front.
Rubio continues to make some ground, and even Bush climber a bit...but he is still distant, and has not begun to get even close to his numbers of five and six months ago.
I continue to believe that they should take the top four for the rest of the debates. Anyone below 6 or 7 percent should appear on the earlier, second team debates.
While some constitutional issues are truly difficult, with framing-era sources either nonexistent or contradictory, here, the relevant materials clearly indicate that a “natural born Citizen” means a citizen from birth with no need to go through naturalization proceedings. The Supreme Court has long recognized that two particularly useful sources in understanding constitutional terms are British common law and enactments of the First Congress.
Both confirm that the original meaning of the phrase “natural born Citizen” includes persons born abroad who are citizens from birth based on the citizenship of a parent.
Ted Cruz's Mom:
Cruz's mother, Eleanor Darragh, was born in Delaware, lived most of her life in the United States, and gave birth to little Rafael Edward Cruz in her 30s (in 1970)
Do you think this matters to Democrats? I can guarantee you they will find a judge who believes otherwise and I can guarantee you that the GOP won't fight the ruling. They will say "well, it's the law of the land...Ted Cruz can't be president" and they will put forth who THEY want the nominee to be.
Yes, Ted Cruz Can be PresidentIt's a moot point. Ted Cruz will never be elected President...ever.
He doesn't have the charisma, the speaking voice (cleft pallet?), the look (hang dog face, droopy eyes), the posture. He looks like he's acting when he speaks (because he is)...nothing but words (different ones everyday), no action.
He needs to get a small tent and take his holier than thou Elmer Gantry act on the road.
This matter of legislative construction isn’t really that complicated, despite what the resident `nebelwerfers’ would have us believe ...
“Both confirm that the original meaning of the phrase “natural born Citizen” includes persons born abroad who are citizens from birth *based on the citizenship of a parent.*”
“Just because you say it’s so don’t make it so.’
Angry conservative to “Hey, let’s just go with the flow” Patrick “Patches’ Kennedy.
Then below she contradicts what she says above:
“So the one remaining question is whether Ted Cruz was a citizen at birth. That’s an easy one. The Nationality Act of 1940 outlines which children become “nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.” In addition to those who are born in the United States **or born outside the country to parents who were both citizens** — or, interestingly, found in the United States without parents and no proof of birth elsewhere — citizenship goes to babies born to one American parent who has spent a certain number of years here.”
Citizenship. That’s right.
As much as we would like something to be something it is not, facts are stubborn things and laws aren’t flavors-of-the-month, despite what Obama and the Democrats say: there’s a difference between a “natural born citizen” and a “citizen” or the post civil war Congress would have repeated the directive of Continental Congress would have used the words “natural born citizen” in the 14th amendment to make newly freed slves eligible for both offices.
And maybe you’re not as fed up as the rest of us by being rooked by Uniparty. Finally, we’re paying the price now in the person of a “citizen’ who once claimed to have been born in Kenya and molded as a child into a muslim in an Indonesian Sunni madrassas.
Why is it that so many take so much on faith in other matters, like head-bobbing muslim school boys learning the suras, but second-guess what our founding fathers meant when they limited the only two national offices in the Constitution to natural born citizens?
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