Posted on 11/28/2015 11:45:13 AM PST by Isara
Speaking Wednesday on Fox News Radio’s “Alan Colmes Show,” Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) told Colmes that he would challenge Ted Cruz should the Texas Senator get the Republican nomination.
After Grayson talked about how allegedly bigoted the Republican field is, Colmes asked him for specifics.
Grayson replied, and the exchange was as follows:
GRAYSON: “Show me one who represents the exception here. In a sense, I guess Cruz is not technically that way, because technically, he's not even an America.”
COLMES: “Well, his mother was born here…”
GRAYSON: “I don't know...the Constitution says natural-born Americans, so now we're counting Canadians as natural born Americans? How does that work? I'm waiting for the moment that he gets the nomination and then I will file that beautiful lawsuit saying that he's unqualified for the job because he's ineligible.”
COLMES: “So you're saying should he get the nomination, Alan Grayson will file a lawsuit against his candidacy.”
GRAYSON: “Absolutely! Call me crazy, but I think the president of America should be an American.”
This isn’t the first time Cruz has faced the citizenship hurdle. There are those, including Donald Trump, who have made the argument that Cruz is ineligible for the presidency because of his being born in Canada.
However, a large swath of legal scholars stand firmly on the belief that Cruz is a “natural-born” citizen.
Former Solicitors General Neal Katyal (Obama admin) and Paul Clement (Bush admin) wrote a piece for the Harvard Law Review in which they argue that Cruz is indeed a “natural born” citizen:
“Congress has made equally clear from the time of the framing of the Constitution to the current day that, subject to certain residency requirements on the parents, someone born to a U.S. citizen parent generally becomes a U.S. citizen without regard to whether the birth takes place in Canada, the Canal Zone, or the continental United States…”
Katyal and Clement reach back to British common law, as well as the First Congress:
“The Supreme Court has long recognized that two particularly useful sources in understanding constitutional terms are British common law, and enactments of the First Congress. Both confirm that the original meaning of the phrase ‘natural born Citizen’ includes persons born abroad who are citizens from birth based on the citizenship of a parent.”
The former Solicitors General dive deeply into the legalities of the subject, and come to a firm conclusion that the Canadian-born Cruz would be eligible for the presidency, adding that arguments to the contrary are both “spurious,” and “specious.”
Other scholars agree, including UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, as well as famous Harvard law professor, and self-proclaimed liberal, Alan Dershowitz, who told National Review:
“Of course he's eligible. He's a natural-born, not a naturalized, citizen.”
It looks like Rep. Alan Grayson would have to surmount conservatives and liberals alike to make the argument that Ted Cruz is anything but a natural-born American.
It should be noted that former presidential candidate John McCain was born in Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone. President Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton even co-sponsored Senate legislation ensuring that no one could make political hay out of a ‘phony issue.’
Since Cruz’ mother is an American citizen, maybe Rep. Grayson should avoid thunderstorms. Who knows, maybe his blatant hypocrisy and selective outrage will trigger an unexpected bolt of lightning.
Grayson is way overdue for a Baker Act hold.
Remember when Mike Huckabee got the left all riled up when he said all those New Yorkers going down to Florida would ruin the state? Yup, he was right.
Unless of course, you are born in Kenya. You are a natural born citizen ;-)
Un freekin’ believable!
There were/are a good number of FReepers who agree with Grayson on this and they feel the same way about Obama.
As a former Army brat I have always believed if you are born to an American parent no matter where you are in the world you are a U.S. citizen.
Actually, “where” doesn’t matter if both parents aren’t citizens. Cruz should stay in the Senate rather than effectively rubber stamp Obama’s lawlessness.
Well, that would not be the first time, would it? And this from the guy who can actually be asked the question, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"
Grayson needs to nut up or shut up.
The only place the Constitution specifies “natural born citizen” is for POTUS. It grants that “a citizen” can be a U.S. Representatives/Congressman, a Senator, an Attorney General, Secretary of State, or Supreme Court Justice.
The argument arises as to the meaning of “natural born,” which our SCOTUS has yet to define. Attorneys can and do argue the point to death. In the strictest interpretation, however, children born outside of the country to citizens in the service of the country are “natural born.”
Jus sanguinis (Latin: right of blood) is a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth but by having one or both parents who are citizens of the state. Jus soli (Latin: right of soil) is a declaration that the citizenship is determined by the place of birth. Many nations have a mixture of jus sanguinis and jus soli, including the United States, Canada, Israel, Greece, Ireland, and recently Germany.
To reconcile this obvious conflict, technically a person could hold dual citizenship, by place of birth, and by nationality of one or both parents.
This is the lawyer thang, to take any old B.S. angle you can especially when you have no real skin in the game in the first place.
The logical answer is the one we heard concerning lawsuits against Obama. Grayson has no standing to bring a suit.
Cruz’s mother was born in Delaware, moved to Texas as a teenager, so she always lived in the US until she went to Canada to work in the oil industry there.
I seem to remember that the mother has to either be of a certain age or has have lived in the US for a certain length of time and obozos mother didn't pass the test. It was a small technicality.
Grayson gets publicity out of being an outrageous idiot. He is a white hustler like Al Sharpton is a black one. The more outrageous, the more notoriety, the better it goes with his gerrymandered constituency. This is the 5th or 6th thread on him for this topic, he is a putz, don’t give him the publicity, please!
At this juncture, the qualification of “natural born citizen” is meaningless, thanks to the half breed and his lying accomplices.
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