Natural born is a term of art from the era when the constitution was written, like well-regulated. There are several sources from that time that the Supreme Court considers authoritative.
It has never been tested in the Supreme Court, at least not in this context.
From that era, natural born means born in the US to two citizen parents. There are some very limited exceptions, one of which applies to John McCain.
My husband was born in Britain and our son was born in the uSA. Are you saying my son is not a natural born citizen??
*USA*
Correct! I cannot understand why this is such a difficult concept for some folks.
Natural born means born to "TWO" citizen parents. You can be born outside of the territorial limits of the country and still be a "Natural Born" citizen (John McCain). If you are born in this country to "ONE" citizen parent.....you are only born a citizen.....not a Natural Born Citizen!
A born citizen (one citizen parent) can be a Representative, a Senator, a Governor and even a Supreme Court Justice.....but can never be the "Commander in Chief"........ and this is the problem with Obama. His father was not a citizen!
This is why the Constitution included a sunset phrase:
[Article II; section I; Paragraph 5]No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
All of the signers were children of foreign born or English citizens and did not want to exclude themselves from attaining the office of the presidency. But they knew that eventually there would be an ample amount of folks who would be born to "TWO" citizen parents as time went by. So they "sun setted" the regulation in the Constitution. There is no such provision for any other Federal Office in this regard.....other than the Commander in Chief.
Unfortunately, Mr. Cruz is not Natural Born as his father was (at the time of his birth) a Cuban citizen. It doesn't make any difference where he was born.....but to whom he was born!
The problem with that assertion is that the Supreme Court spent much of one decision examining the sources of the term "natural born" (the Wong Kim Ark decision) and didn't come to that conclusion.