RE: Under Ted Cruz’s own logic, he’s ineligible for the White House
Well, let’s put it this way.... the argument can go one way or another since the term “natural born” was not defined by the framers at all. All we can do today is discern the meaning of the term as originally understood.
Therefore, a person is entitled to change his mind.
“Therefore, a person is entitled to change his mind.”
Unless it’s Donald Trump.....
Did you read the article. It is not about Cruz changing his mind.
People are entitled to their own opinions about what the definition ought to be. But the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the Supreme Court is an “originalist,†one who claims to be bound by the narrowly historical meaning of the Constitution’s terms at the time of their adoption. To his kind of judge, Cruz ironically wouldn’t be eligible, because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and ’90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a “natural born†citizen. Even having two US parents wouldn’t suffice. And having just an American mother, as Cruz did, would have been insufficient at a time that made patrilineal descent decisive.
You better go read Vattel’s Law of Nations (Book 1) - b/c THAT treaties was, at the time of the drafting and ratification of our Constitution, THE authority upon which the founders derived THEIR understanding of the meaning to NBC.
The fact of such understanding and usage cannot be seriously disputed. The idea that the writers of the Constitution should have included an “index,” so as to secure for posterity the intended meaning of the terms used is an absurd proposition, given that all those possessing a sound education in jurisprudence - and most did - understood the plain meaning of such terms and therefore would have no reason to otherwise define them.
One only needs to review the legal documents relevant to that historical period to appreciate what I have just stated.
See: CHAP. XIX. OF OUR NATIVE COUNTRY, AND SEVERAL THINGS THAT RELATE TO IT ... Article 212. Citizens and natives. http://www.constitution.org/vattel/vattel_01.htm