Posted on 04/30/2016 5:29:17 PM PDT by dynoman
GREENFIELD, Ind. — At a campaign stop just days before the critical Indiana primary, Heidi Cruz, wife of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said one of her husband's strengths in the campaign is that he "is an immigrant."
"Ted is an immigrant," Mrs. Cruz said, emphasizing the word "is." "He is Hispanic."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Expulsion and impeachment are two different things, and two different procedures. As I said yesterday, the issue was that Psalm 144 had said Cruz ought to be impeached.
As for expulsion, so far, at least two courts, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, have said that Cruz is qualified to be President, which means that he is considered by those courts to be a U. S. citizen, and even a natural born citizen. Those cases would be an extremely high hurdle for the Senate to get over before they could expel him.
BTW, I believe that Cruz is not an NBC, but that after two terms of Obama without one court case that was allowed to be heard all the way through to a decision, that is apparently no longer a problem for candidates to overcome.
See Posts: 111, 153, 156, 159, 170, 189, 196, 214, 223, 229, 246, 270 No, my conversation isn’t
>> TD still can be a good SCOTUS appointee <<
If you meant to say “TED” (instead of TD), then you are right.
The Constitution gives absolutely no requirements as to qualification for the SCOTUS.
In other words, the King of Saudi Arabia, one of his concubines, any felon in San Quentin, and a ten-year-old orphan in Nigeria would all be allowed to sit on the Court, if the President nominated him/her and the Senate gave consent.
Therefore, even the fact that Cruz is a natural-born Canadian-Cuban dual citizen would not bar him.
His records are sealed, sound familiar?
From that page the first question is;
Question: What happens if the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration?
Answer:
If the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President-elect will act as President until such a time as a President has qualified.Then further down on that page is another question.
Question: Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President?
Answer:
The Office of the Federal Register at the National Archives and Records Administration administers the Electoral College process, which takes place after the November general election. The Office of the Federal Register does not have the authority to handle issues related to the general election, such as candidate qualifications. People interested in this issue may wish to contact their state election officials or their Congressional Representatives.
In light of this answer I emailed the contact for that page the following.
From: Greg XXXXXXXI think there should be transcripts of some past joint sessions where eligibility is discussed. IE Chester Arthur for instance or maybe perhaps President number 10, John Tyler, who was one of the first NBC Presidents.
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 3:23 PM
To: 'electoral_college@nara.gov'
Subject: US Code 3On this page "Previous Questions of The Week." here http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/previous_questions.html
There are two questions I would like to address, the First one is "What happens if the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration?" And the answer is correct as it states the process described in the 20th amendment and US Code 3 Sec 19. US Code 3 describes the process of counting the electoral vote for President and Vice President during a joint session of congress.
Then a subsequent question "Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President?" That answer is not very specific. You mention the Office of Federal Register at the National Archives but go on to state it is a states issue. Well in section 11 we see the first mention of the Archivist. But there are three other copies of the certificates, one set being delivered to the President of the Senate. Then is section 15 we see that two tellers from each house previously selected and are handed the certificates for opening and are dealt with in an alphabetical order. It goes on to explain and clarify the counting process.
The word qualify does not appear until section 19 when it mentions the President "elect." This is because we have determined who the President and Vice President elect are. That is the point where qualifications are to be handled. In fact section 19 describes every different situation where someone other than the President elect would assume to act as President and in each case it also declares that that person needs to be "qualified". It is mentioned "nine" times! Now how can one think that any other person or body be responsible for seeing that in these different situations involving the qualification of the President and Vice President elect, or any of the other situation listed, be handled by but Congress?
3 U.S. Code Chapter 1 - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VACANCIES
So there is the process listed. Why and when did Congress start stopping at section 15?
Exactly. They didn't say "citizen" except to grandfather themselves in, meaning there is a difference between the two. They didn't say "naturalized" citizen. They said "natural" meaning it occurs naturally. Meaning there is no "law."
The procedure is for the Electors to determine whether or not the candidates are eligible for the office and to vote accordingly. When the Electoral votes are transmitted from the states to Congress, the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have the opportunity to enter an objection to a vote. The House of Representatives and Senate must vote on each objection and concur in any decision to reject acceptance of that Electoral vote. The subsequent handling of the votes and qualifications are merely administrative tasks with no authority to determine the eligibility that was the responsibility of the Electors to select and the Congress to confirm or deny.
You’re obviously very unhappy about this issue and the way that Americans have approached it. The truth is that there isn’t any definition of natural born citizen which, if adopted, will make your life measurably better or worse. It is not the source of your unhappiness or your problems. Try not to think about it anymore.
Cruz himself is certainly not mandatory authority on the subject of NBC.
Whatever part of the generic subject of NBC the government has “settled”, it hasn’t settled every possible contingency. Cruz’s case is unique. That is why we have courts - because no law can cover every possible contingency. The Constitution created federal courts to resolve individual CASES AND CONTROVERSIES regarding federal questions as Cruz’s case certainly is.
Cruz’s NBC eligibility is an individual case and controversy of a federal question that needs resolution in a federal court.
Well, I disagree. The Constitution empowers electors to select our presidents. I believe that they are obligated to vote only for candidates that they find to be eligible to serve. I don't think that they should ignore the provisions regarding eligibility. I believe that voters have the same obligation when they vote for electors.
You are entitled to arrive at your own conclusion, but I would encourage you and everyone else who participates in the process to vote only for people you believe to be eligible to serve. I think that is part of our responsibility. I know that it probably won't ever matter if you personally ignore that responsibility, but I think that if you're going to do a job, you may as well do it correctly. Fortunately, most people try to do the right thing.
“Cruz’s NBC eligibility is an individual case and controversy of a federal question that needs resolution in a federal court.”
Unfortunately, there is still an open question as to whether or not the Constitution allows the judiciary to overrule the decisions of the Electoral College and Congress with respect to the eligibility of the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect. A Constitutional Amendment could rectify the problem, but the establishment politicians have a chokehold on that process and remedy as well.
You are obviously stating an opinion with no facts to back up how you arrived at your opinion. See post 307.
The same sources indicate some form of circumstances can cause the President-Elect to become unqualified, qualified, and unqualified again, suggesting the lack of qualification is some form of illness or other incapacity of a temporary nature. It is implied the Electors are responsible for exercising their individual judgment as to whether or not the candidate is qualified to receive the vote of the Elector. The Congress then has an opportunity to find cause to object to the elector’s decision, such as the death of the candidate as occurred when Horace Greeley died prior to the voting by the Electoral College and three electors voted for the dead candidate anyway. Once the eligibility has survived the vote of the Electoral College and the objections of Congress, it remains to be seen what other remedies can and will be pursued. Obviously the time is long long past due when action needs to be taken to allow the electorate the authority to enforce the natural born citizen clause whether the political elite like it or not. The time is also long past due when the vote rigging and vote fraud needs to harshly punished with lasting consequences for a lifetime and the integrity of the elections properly secured.
I think that is pretty straightforward. I reject the alternative - that electors are supposed to choose persons who are not qualified.
I think the process described for the failure of the person chosen by the electors to qualify is a little better than opinion.
How are electors supposed to know the constitutional qualifications are met?
Is it the elector's responsibility, the candidate's or the Party's?
Our system has worked for more than 50+ presidential elections. It works because the vast majority of people try to do the right thing.
I believe that a person who is a citizen at birth is a natural born citizen. I recognize that some folks prefer a more complicated formulation. I recognize that usually they do so because they oppose a particular candidate for other reasons. I understand that and I can live with it. There are not enough of those people to make a difference.
There is really nothing to get excited about. Our system works well.
But US Code has a process as I have described above for the instance of verifying qualifications. We somehow somewhere along the line stopped the process prematurely.
You can believe what you want, but there is in place a process.
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