Ted Cruz was a U.S. Citizen at Birth, Will A Court Decide He Is A Natural Born Citizen?

Washington Examiner ^ | 1/7/2016 | Byron York

[CommerceComet]

A person who disputed an Act of Congress which claimed they were not citizens absolutely would not be told by a court that Congress has sole discretion regarding whether or not they are a citizen.

If it is a settled matter of law with no unique factual situation, their petition would certainly be denied.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Um, no.

Encyclopedia Britannica is a general encyclopedia not a legal encyclopedia like Corpus Juris Secundum or American Jurisprudence.

Black’s Law Dictionary is the foremost legal dictionary in the United States.

That you believe Britannica to be an authority on legal definitions tells me it’s time to end this discussion.

Carry on.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Utterly false. A person who disputed an Act of Congress which claimed they were not citizens absolutely would not be told by a court that Congress has sole discretion regarding whether or not they are a citizen.

I actually laughed out loud at that. Thanks for the chuckle.

In case you're wondering why I laughed, SCOTUS did exactly that in Rogers v. Bellei.

[BuckeyeTexan]

I don't know why (s)he makes that argument either. SCOTUS said in Afroyim v. Rusk that "Congress has no power under the Constitution to revoke a person's U.S. citizenship unless he voluntarily relinquishes it." So that is not in dispute.

Congress can revoke naturalized citizenship. Congress can impose statutory requirements to retain statutory citizenship-at-birth.

[SaraJohnson]

He can do his own research.

[AustinBill]

That is good news. The only potential wrinkle would have been if that "report" were true. With an American mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth Cruz is on the exact same legal footing as John McCain. Since McCain was eligible I don't see how any court would not rule the same for Cruz.

This does raise an interesting question of why Obama fought so hard against releasing his own Hawaiian "birth certificate". By this same reason as long as his mother was an American citizen at the time of his birth it would not matter if her were in fact born in Kenya, as many have believed.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Well, in Obama’s case, birth outside the country would matter because his mother was three months shy of being able to transmit citizenship to him.

The law requires the one citizen parent to be physically present in the U.S. for five years after the age of 14. Stanley Ann Dunham was three months shy of being 19.

[Political Junkie Too]

The Rubio birther brouhaha did not involve doubts about whether Rubio was born in the U.S. - he was, in Miami - but ohe fact that neither of his parents was born in this country.

York keeps making this mistake, so I have to assume it's on purpose. It wasn't about where his parents were born; it was that they weren't American citizens when he was born.

-PJ

[conservativejoy]

Exactly right.

[the OlLine Rebel]

My dad was GIVEN THE CHOICE of Canadian or US citizenship when he came of age. He rejected Canadian. He was NEVER a Canadian/Newfoundland citizen.

He has always seen himself as ineligible.