No question Ted Cruz is eligible to be president

The Bryan-College Station Eagle ^ | January 10, 2016 | The Editorial Board

[2ndDivisionVet]

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.

-- U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1

It is easy to ignore the often-hateful blatherings of Donald Trump, but his questioning of Ted Cruz' eligibility to be president needs an answer. And that answer is a clear "yes."

Trump knows very well that Cruz is eligible, but in his desperation to stave off a surging Cruz candidacy The Donald will say anything.

Although he was born in Calgary, Canada in 1970, Ted Cruz is considered a "natural born" citizen of the United States because his mother was born in Delaware. His Cuban father was working in the Canadian oil fields when his son was born. Thus, the Texas senator was born a citizen of both the United States and Canada. He always has though of himself -- rightly -- as American, saying he didn't realize he had dual citizenship until it was pointed out by The Dallas Morning News in 2014. At that time, Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship, although he could have kept it without endangering his eligibility to be America's president.

Despite claims by some Trump supporters -- who still are trying to prove that Barack Obama's birth in Hawaii of a Kenyan father and American mother makes him ineligible to be president -- Cruz does not hold a Canadian passport and, apparently, never has.

Two former Justice Department lawyers, in a Harvard Law Review article quoted in USA Today last March, said, "Despite the happenstance of a birth across the border, there is no question that Sen, Cruz has been a citizen from birth and is thus a 'natural born citizen' within the meaning of the Constitution,"

Neal Katyal, who was acting solicitor general in the Obama administration from May 2010 to June 2011, and Paul Clement, solicitor general from 2004 to 2008 in the George W. Bush administration, said, "As Congress has recognized since the Founding, a person born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent is generally a U.S. citizen from birth with no need for naturalization. And the phrase 'natural born citizen' in the Constitution encompasses all such citizens from birth.

"Thus, an individual born to a U.S. citizen parent -- whether in California or Canada or the Canal Zone -- is a U.S. citizen from birth and is fully eligible to serve as president if the people so choose."

Surely Trump knows he is wrong about Cruz' eligibility, so why bring it up. Quite simply, Trump knows his poll numbers are ephemeral, that he has garnered just about all the supporters he is going to get. As Republican voters get serious about the election, they will settle for more serious, far more qualified canidates, including, possibly, Ted Cruz. TheTeflon Don's non-stick surface is beginning to peel.

There are many reasons to vote for Ted Cruz for president, and probably just as many not to. Like all candidates, he asks us to accept him, warts and all.

Whatever you think about Ted Cruz, he is eligible to be president of the United States -- and has been for a decade since he turned 35.

[Radix]

Months before Trump became a candidate it was clear that Cruz was going to be running.

It has always been clear to me that Cruz did not meet the NBC criteria. How Trump figures in is a mystery to me.

According to most who justify Cruz's legitimacy on this regard the logic seems seriously blemished to me.

If Cruz is a NBC of the USA then of course as well he is also a natural born citizen of Canada. Moreover, Cruz is a natural born Cuban as well because after all, his father was a Cuban citizen.

This issue is important and how anyone could be confused over it is perplexing here.

Do people actually contend that an individual could be a natural born citizen of more than one country?

Really?

I think that Conservatives have bigger problems than just living among Liberals if that is the case of their reasoning abilities.

[SmokingJoe]

Trump and every other general contractor (& others) in NYC, Boston, New Jersey, & beyond. THIS IS NOT MEANT TO IMPLY THAT HE DID/ DOES, INDEED, DEAL WITH ORGANIZED CRIME.

He did.

Washington Post:
Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-swam-in-mob-infested-waters-in-early-years-as-an-nyc-developer/2015/10/16/3c75b918-60a3-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html

CNN:

Donald Trump and the mob

www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/politics/trump-mob-mafia

[MayflowerMadam]

I hope and pray that Cruz is 100% qualified to be president. He’ll be completely prepared to take over when Trump’s terms are finished. I like both of them. Now, I prefer Trump considering the current circumstances. Cruz can learn a ton from Trump in 4 or 8 years and then be a kick-ass President.

[Cboldt]

-- The 14th amendment doesn't give you NBC status, it just means you are a citizen. --

I agree.

-- You fail to post what this statue is. --

8 USC 1401(g), for Cruz. Obama, taking his birthpalce as Hawaii, would be 8 USC 1401(a), but that clause only repeats the operable part of the 14th amendment.

-- My original point stands, the argument was about whether Obama was born in the US, not some statue --

There were multiple argument in Obama's case. I'm sure you know that and generally what they were. Roughly:

• not born in the US (fact dispute), therefore not a statutory citizen (correct conclusion given statute at the time)
• NBC under the 14th amendment depends on the father being a citizen too
• a person born a dual citizen isn't NBC

[KGeorge]

You've never been in construction, have you. Or sanitation. Or transportation/ freight. Or sports. You're very, very naive if you think this stuff doesn't go on all the time. You're really naive (or willfully blind) if you think your candidate is squeaky clean. (There's a third alternative, but unlike you, I don't get off on conflicts & azzholery so I'll just stop there. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. I'll see ya around.)

[Radix]

Were there citizens at the time of the adoption of the Constitution who were considered ineligible to become President?

Did the Founders envision that there would be such individuals?

Why would they include such language into the body of the Constitution if they considered all citizens ‘not naturalized’ as NBC?

It is quite obvious (to me at least) that the Founders recognized that there would be persons born citizens who would not be NBC.

[Duchess47]

Where did you go to school at?

George Washington Born: February 22, 1732, Westmoreland County, Virginia, VA

John Adams Born: October 30, 1735, Braintree, MA

Thomas Jefferson Born: April 13, 1743, Shadwell, VA

James Madison Born: March 16, 1751, Port Conway, VA

James Monroe Born: April 28, 1758, Monroe Hall, Virginia, VA

John Quincy Adams Born: July 11, 1767, Braintree, MA

Andrew Jackson born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina

Martin Van Buren born on December 5, 1782 in the village of Kinderhook, New York

William Henry HarrisonBorn: February 9, 1773, Charles City County, Virginia, VA

[jdsteel]

“If cruz being born in Canada is OK with everyone than why did we have the birther movement trying to prove Obama wasn’t eligible based on his supposed birth in kenya?”

You are taking the actual controversy out of context and as misdefined by the left. The truth is that if Obama had been born in Kenya he would be a NBC, but the lies about where he was born and the subsequent coverup would have made him unelectable.

[SmokingJoe]

Chortle!
Here we have a guy that flames a pro Cruz thread with garbage about Ted Cruz Snr fighting with Che Guevara (never happened), turning round and whining about attacks on Trump for working with the mafia(which actually happened as my links proved).
You are just too funny.
Which would voters rather have in the White House? A president who's father fought Batista or a president who is in cahoots with and has been in bed with the mob for decades?

[so_real]

I'll add to Godebert's post that the primary author of the 14th Amendment, Rep. John Bingham, said of the Amendment's introductory clause, that it is :

"simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen"

That was in 1866 and a direct quote. He had a pretty good finger on the pulse of "original intent", and without ratified constitutional amendment, original intent stands.

[South Dakota]

NBC under the 14th amendment depends on the father being a citizen too
a person born a dual citizen isn’t nbc.
In Inglis v. Trustees (1830) and Elk v. Wilkins (1884), the Supreme Court ruled that a child born on U.S. soil, to a father owing allegiance to a sovereignty other than the United States, inherits its father’s (foreign) citizenship. Such child is not a U.S. citizen at birth [20]

[Cboldt]

I agree with your conclusions. I think the Wong Kim Ark case used the wrong meaning of “subject to the jurisdiction” too. I’d be stingy with citizenship, I think that is the paradigm of the constitution. But, the people at the controls today want to be generous with citizenship, so everything is read in a way to obtain that outcome.

[The Great RJ]

Gee anyone who raised these questions about Obama’s eligibility was branded a nut job.

[wardaddy]

It uses the word parents plural

So if Cruz’s dad had not been naturalized at time of birth and born in Alberta then he would be ineligible?

[Canedawg]

bfl

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Omg.. You simply REFUSE TO KNOW. Citizenship CAN be conferred. Natural born citizen is A CERTAIN THING. Sorry to yell, but this issue is really simple, and Freepers are stubborn creatures.

[RginTN]

Where did you go to school at?

+++++++

Colonies aren’t states

Guess you need a refresher course in history

[Duchess47]

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that Massachusetts, Virginia, New York and North and South Carolina weren’t part of the United States. My history books did include them. Current maps include them also.

[RginTN]

Settled law situationally applied

---

Again, you’re being silly. The Constitution quite explicitly made provision for those the status of the presidents you mentioned. After they were all gone, the natural born requirement fully kicked in.

++++++++

You prove my point. Laws you like are settled laws you don’t like need to be taken before the SC to be settled law.

The birther nutcases attacking Cruz are nutcases.

Show them the law which settles this issue and they will ignore it, make up lies or create their own meaning.

Its utter nonsense.

[EternalVigilance]

I don’t have anything to discuss with someone who thinks that only the SCOTUS gets to decide what is “settled law.”