Firstly, my “desire for Ted Cruz not to be eligible” is a product of your imagination. I do not place political power above rule of law. I think Cruz has an outstanding record of accomplishment and it is unfortunate that there aren’t more who are of like mind and as capable as he. He is not Art. II eligible however.
Secondly, by your own standard: “the legislature had the power to specify exactly who, born outside of the country, was to be considered a natural born citizen” Cruz is not eligible. There is no current statute specifying who, born outside the country, is to be considered a natural born citizen. Every statute regarding that class specifies “citizen”.
Bayard said, and Chief Justice Marshall agreed with him, that those who were citizens by birth, INCLUDING AMERICANS BORN OUTSIDE OF THE COUNTRY, AT THE TIME WHEN CONGRESS HAD ALREADY CHANGED THE STATUTE TO SIMPLY SAY, "CITIZEN," were eligible to be President.
Throughout our history, our law has only considered TWO kinds of citizens: "natural born citizens," and persons who went through some kind of naturalization AFTER THEY WERE BORN NON-CITIZENS.
That's the law.
And we've presented enough evidence here for you to UNDERSTAND that that's the law.
There's no rational reason for you to deny it, except that you don't want Ted Cruz and people like him to be eligible to be President.
Aside from that, as far as I can tell, every real legal scholar of any stature in the country considers Cruz eligible.
So everyone with any authority in the matter says Ted Cruz is eligible.
If you don't agree, then sorry, but your opinion really doesn't count for anything.
A Fact which Jeff deliberately refuses to recognize.