FYI:
National Review Online: The Cruz Birthers
“42-year-old Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother and a Cuban father. By dint of his mother’s citizenship, Cruz was an American citizen at birth. Whether he meets the Constitution’s requirement that the president of the United States be a “natural-born citizen,” a term the Framers didn’t define and for which the nation’s courts have yet to offer an interpretation, has become the subject of considerable speculation.
Snip
Legal scholars are firm about Cruz’s eligibility. “Of course he’s eligible,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz tells National Review Online. “He’s a natural-born, not a naturalized, citizen.” Eugene Volokh, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and longtime friend of Cruz, agrees, saying the senator was “a citizen at birth, and thus a natural-born citizen — as opposed to a naturalized citizen, which I understand to mean someone who becomes a citizen after birth.”
Federal law extends citizenship beyond those granted it by the 14th Amendment: It confers the privilege on all those born outside of the United States whose parents are both citizens, provided one of them has been “physically present” in the United States for any period of time, as well as all those born outside of the United States to at least one citizen parent who, after the age of 14, has resided in the United States for at least five years. Cruz’s mother, who was born and raised in Delaware, meets the latter requirement, so Cruz himself is undoubtedly an American citizen. No
more:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/343914/cruz-birthers-eliana-johnson
Not exactly. The SCOTUS in Minor v. Happersett defined "Natural Born Citizen," concurring with Vattel's definition. (Minor was not a presidential eligibility case, however.) Vattel is considered to be the Framers' source for the term.
“Of course he’s eligible,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz tells National Review Online. “He’s a natural-born, not a naturalized, citizen.”
This is so typical of leftist constitutional thinking, using sleight of hand, as Dersh does, to change the original meaning of "Natural Born Citizen" in order to effect a result that pleases his ideological tastes. No, Dersh, your error is to split all citizens into only two classifications. "Citizen at birth" and "Natural Born Citizen" have never been synonymous terms. The latter is a subset of the former.
Same holds for Eugene Volokh, who might be interested in changing the Constitution to help out his friend Ted Cruz. But as Theodore Roosevelt famously said, "No man is above the law." That should hold a fortiori when we're talking about the supreme law of the land!
“Federal law extends citizenship beyond those granted it by the 14th Amendment”
That federal law is naturalization laws, codified as 8 USC.
Article II specifies “natural born citizen”, or “citizen” at the time of adoption of the Constitution.
A naturalized citizen is not a natural born citizen.