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Question Ted Cruz should ask: Can a foreign-born American be president?
The Los Angeles Times ^ | February 24, 2015 | Doyle McManus

Posted on 02/24/2015 7:07:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Sen. Ted Cruz is getting close to announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. The Texan is spending almost as much time in Iowa and New Hampshire as he does on Fox News; he's hired a staff and collected a long list of fiercely conservative supporters..

There's at least one hitch: Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, in the Canadian province of Alberta. His mother was a U.S. citizen, born in Delaware; his father, a Cuban refugee working in Canada's oil fields. Thanks to his mother, Cruz was a U.S. citizen at birth.

But that doesn't clear up a legal muddle that's as old as the Constitution: Is a U.S. citizen born abroad qualified to serve as president?

I don't agree with Cruz on most issues. He wants to repeal Obamacare, abolish the Internal Revenue Service and pass a constitutional amendment allowing states to outlaw gay marriage, just to take the top of his list. But I still hope he runs — because it's high time we established the right of Canadian-born Americans to serve as president.

Canadian Americans are perhaps our most underappreciated minority. Their contributions to U.S. culture range from hockey to comedy to, well, hockey. It's an impressive list: Wayne Gretzky, William Shatner, Lorne Michaels, Jim Carrey, Pamela Anderson, Alex Trebek. And now Ted Cruz.

At this point I should confess a personal stake: My oldest daughter was born in Toronto. Like Ted Cruz, she inherited U.S. citizenship through one of her parents. But we assured her that she could grow up to be president of the United States. (Proud of her dual citizenship, she says she'd like to serve as prime minister of Canada too.)

Canada is a wonderful country.....

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues
KEYWORDS: 2016birfers; 2016electionbias; article2section1; canada; cruz; dnctalkingpoints; dnctrollmedia; doublestandard; doylemcmanus; gettedcruz; naturalborncitizen; nbc; tedcruz; zot
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To: HMS Surprise

“McCain was not eligible to be President”

His father was in the US military stationed at Panama and his mother was also there. Every US military post in any country is considered American soil plus both his parents were citizens but if one had been a citizen, he would still be an American citizen. McCain was a US citizen when he was born. A person is natural born if no court document is required to make him/her a citizen. A naturalized citizen is not natural born citizen as a court document is required to make him/her a citizen.


41 posted on 02/24/2015 10:03:20 PM PST by Marcella (Prepping can save your life today. Going Galt is freedom.)
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To: HMS Surprise

Please cite case law or statute to support your claim that somehow the word natural born citizen has a legal meaning other than the one I referred to as being a citizen at birth. I will not hold my breath for it of course as it does not to the best of my knowledge exists, in fact there are so few incidences where the legal concept comes up that it is almost a nullity in US law. The legal definition I pointed to is one of the few that is used at any time in US law.


42 posted on 02/24/2015 10:19:07 PM PST by Bidimus1
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To: Spaulding
Thanks for casting a bright light in the darkness of this Constitutional shadow.

Infatuation won't like it much, but it needed to be said.

From a certain point of view, we are commanded to honor our Fathers and if we had, we would have avoided what is now our reality and soon to be our worldly ordered destination.

But infatuation says, "Get out of the way. We want what we want and rules are made to be broken."
And so it shall be...so say we all.

43 posted on 02/24/2015 10:30:17 PM PST by GBA (Just a hick in paradise)
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To: Bidimus1

You simply REFUSE to understand. This is NOT complicated. ALL that matters is WHAT did the phrase NATURAL BORN mean when it was incorporated into the Constitution. If you look to statutes or case law, YOU LOSE.


44 posted on 02/24/2015 11:20:12 PM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: Marcella

Your idea that a military base in a foreign country constitutes American SOIL is wishful thinking on your part.


45 posted on 02/24/2015 11:21:56 PM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: Fungi

No. The LA Times didn’t ask about Dear Ones problematic birth circumstance... But we did. And now, knowing that Cruz was not born in America, most conservatives seem to have no problem with being hypocritical on this issue. I repeat... Ted Cruz was NOT born in America. This used to be a universally accepted disqualification. What happened to change it?


46 posted on 02/24/2015 11:32:36 PM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: HMS Surprise
McCain was not eligible to be President.. PERIOD.

What does HMS stand for?

In any case, HMS Surprise's attitude towards the US military is duly noted.

47 posted on 02/24/2015 11:42:01 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: Marcella
Every US military post in any country is considered American soil

Don't go there.

Because, then, any Panamanian baby dropped on the base would be a natural born citizen. And that's not the case.

McCain is a natural born citizen because of this parentage, not because of where he was born.

48 posted on 02/24/2015 11:45:40 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: skeptoid

Actually that does not apply in this case. When I was stationed in Japan we had female sailors, who married Japanese Men(very rare) but the few cases we did have, those children were considered by our government in having dual citizenship with their U.S. Citizenship trumping that the host nation.


49 posted on 02/25/2015 2:02:50 AM PST by Trueblackman (As a Conservative, I am proud to be on the Obama's enemy list and on the right side of history..)
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To: HMS Surprise

I am not a citizenship lawyer nor do I play one on TV, but I am aware that American Citizenship by either parent goes to their children by default. When I was in the military, one of our contractors and his Greek Wife were killed in a car accident in 1997, the children were sent by the Greek American Embassy to the States as they we considered Americans Citizens to live with his Parents.


50 posted on 02/25/2015 2:10:37 AM PST by Trueblackman (As a Conservative, I am proud to be on the Obama's enemy list and on the right side of history..)
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To: HMS Surprise
Thank HMS for clarification of what many Freepers should already know if they followed the NBC threads here on FR.

Understanding of NBC use to be more widespread in previous decades. (wayback here i previously submitted proof of such understanding several years ago)

51 posted on 02/25/2015 2:35:34 AM PST by urtax$@work (The only kind of memorial is a Burning memorial !)
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To: cynwoody

I’m surprised at the lack of respect many Freepers have for the Constitution.


52 posted on 02/25/2015 5:01:21 AM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: Trueblackman

Citizenship is NOT the issue. The issue is a special kind of citizenship call NATURAL BORN citizenship. Cruz was born a citizen, he was NOT born naturally a citizen. Statutes were required to manifest his status. Freepers need to wake up.


53 posted on 02/25/2015 5:05:37 AM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: skeeter

The hypocrisy of Freepers is equally mind-boggling. My wife is not interested in politics.. AT ALL. I just asked her a SIMPLE question: If you are born outside the United States, can you be President? Her answer was instant.. NO. Ted Cruz CANNOT be President unless the Constitution is ignored. Love him, I’m sorry.


54 posted on 02/25/2015 5:46:40 AM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: HMS Surprise
The hypocrisy of Freepers is equally mind-boggling.

Perhaps it boggles your mind. Not mine.

Freepers do not have the responsibility of being impartial purveyors of information. The news media deserve every ounce of criticism for their leftwing advocacy.

Ted Cruz without a doubt respects and intends to uphold the Constitution, Barack Obama is disassembling it. So motives are another big difference.

If getting a Constitutional purist in a position to undo the damage that the SOB currently in the White House has inflicted means sometimes playing by the lefts rules, then I'm a hypocrite, too. I'm tired of the other side cheating and winning.

55 posted on 02/25/2015 7:08:44 AM PST by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He must be doing a lot better in the internal polls than the ones we're allowed to see.

I'm surprised the left is raising the issue of eligibility. Especially since so many on the right are doing such a bang-up job of doing it for them.

56 posted on 02/25/2015 7:13:06 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Marcella
Every US military post in any country is considered American soil...

If that were true then the child of any foreign national who happened to be born on the base would be a U.S. citizen. And I don't think that's true.

57 posted on 02/25/2015 7:18:37 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: HMS Surprise
No statute is ever needed to clarify.

Then what is needed to clarify? What source defines natural born citizen solely as you define it? And what source says it's right?

58 posted on 02/25/2015 7:21:22 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg
Its the typically ridiculous p*ssing contest in the run up to the primaries we go through around here.

Like its a damn football game and the future of the country isn't hanging in the balance. Fools.

59 posted on 02/25/2015 7:32:56 AM PST by skeeter
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To: DoodleDawg

“If that were true then the child of any foreign national who happened to be born on the base would be a U.S. citizen.”

It only applies to American military CONNECTED to that base. Even if the military lives off the base, they are still connected to that base and retain their American citizenship.


60 posted on 02/25/2015 8:27:44 AM PST by Marcella (Prepping can save your life today. Going Galt is freedom.)
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