As Katyal and Clement observe, changes in the law after 1790 clarified that children born of a single American-citizen parent outside the United States are natural born American citizens "subject to certain residency requirements." Those residency requirements have changed over time.Under the law in effect when Cruz was born in 1970 (i.e., statutes applying to people born between 1952 and 1986), the requirement was that, at the time of birth, the American citizen parent had to have resided in the U.S. for ten years, including five years after the age of fourteen. Cruz's mother, Eleanor, easily met that requirement
The Constitution, to be amended, has to go through the amending process, not just by a law passed by Congress. Under the “natural born” stipulation in the Constitution, natural born citizen ship descended from the father (Naturalization Act of 1790) — original intent. The fact that Cruz’s father may have been a Canadian citizen when he was born causes problems.