Posted on 01/15/2016 9:54:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The congressman who infamously said during the Obamacare debate that Republicans wanted sick people to "die quickly" and said Planned Parenthood defunding proponents will shepherd in a wave of deaths said he will sue over Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) eligibility to be president.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is running for the Senate seat Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is vacating to run for president.
Grayson is challenging Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat. Murphy defeated incumbent Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) in 2012.
On the GOP side, Reps. Ron DeSantis and David Jolly are eyeing Rubio's seat.
Grayson told MSNBC that he'll sue over Canadian-born Cruz's natural-born citizen status if the senator is the GOP nominee.
"Because the constitution means what it says and says what it means. That's why. I don't agree with you that there's any sort of consensus about this at all. Larry Tribe seems to be on my side of the argument," he explained.
Tribe was one of Cruz's professors at Harvard Law. Donald Trump has been citing Tribe's skepticism over Cruz's eligibility, saying it's not a settled matter in case law.
"Look, there's a legal argument which you just addressed and a factual argument. Let's start with the legal argument. You seem to think that natural-born citizen means somebody born to an American parent, right?" said Grayson, who also graduated from Harvard Law and clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"There is not much legal authority to support that and the Supreme Court has, in fact, never addressed that. A better argument can be made that it means you're simply born in the United States. One of the words connote natural-born citizen, may be somebody born in the United States. Certainly, no reason to think it for sure means anything other than that," the congressman continued.
"Now, with regard to the facts, there's another problem that he has, which is that his mother was a registered voter, he relies upon his mother for his American citizenship. His mother was a registered voter in Canada. That just came out this week," Grayson added. "If she was a registered voter in Canada, safe to say she was a citizen of Canada, like his father was. And if both parents were Canadian citizens, how can he claim American citizenship?"
On his standing to sue, Grayson said it would be his responsibility.
"Say the Republican Party nominated an elephant for president and the Democrats nominated a donkey -- do you really think that nobody could raise an issue about that, that we'd just basically have to choose between the elephant and donkey? Of course, we wouldn't," he said.
Grayson denied his lawsuit would be like birthers claiming President Obama was born in Kenya.
"That case is about someone who was born in the United States. This is about someone who was born in Canada. I'm not going to get into legal strategies here. I'm pretty confident that the standing is not a problem," he said. "And, by the way, the whole standing document comes from our friend Justice Scalia, who I worked with for a year. So I know a thing or two about standing."
"That's exactly what makes America so great. Anybody can sue anybody for anything... if the Republicans are foolish enough to nominate somebody who's ineligible for the job, that's really not my problem."
From the Cato Institute:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3060736/posts "What's a "natural born citizen"? The Constitution doesn't say, but the Framers' understanding, combined with statutes enacted by the First Congress, indicate that the phrase means both birth abroad to American parents - in a manner regulated by federal law - and birth within the nation's territory regardless of parental citizenship. The Supreme Court has confirmed that definition on multiple occasions in various contexts.
There's no ideological debate here: Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and former solicitor general Ted Olson - who were on opposite sides in Bush v. Gore among other cases - co-authored a memorandum in March 2008 detailing the above legal explanation in the context of John McCain's eligibility. Recall that McCain - lately one of Cruz's chief antagonists - was born to U.S. citizen parents serving on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone.
In other words, anyone who is a citizen at birth - as opposed to someone who becomes a citizen later ("naturalizes") or who isn't a citizen at all - can be president."
Sorry, meant to say that only nat born citizens can be President.
Trump could make an argument on standing for the lawsuit because he is directly hurt by having to campaign against an ineligible candidate which costs him money.
Trump could certainly find attorneys who would construct a Constitutional argument and/or argue that naturalization laws are not controlling in this situation.
Rather than let others do his dirty work, Trump could do it himself. Trump's comments about eligibility ("attorneys have told me...") and the loan disclosure ("I have heard this is a serious issue...") come across as cowardly. If Trump thinks that these are issues, then directly accuse rather hide behind the skirts of others and snipe from the sidelines. This is his opportunity to take bold action to prove that he isn't the typical politician.
I think of Grayson as an excrement coated cockroach.
Because he’s certifiably insane, just like the party chair, The Chia Pet.
It was filed in Federal court, I should have mentioned that.
Why HOW can THIS be? Seems like everybody has clear “Surging Ted” on this issue. Didn’t Grayson get the memo?
That's a very accurate take on things and appears to be the purpose of "Ted Cruz for President" at this point.
Yet another remarkable aspect is how "they" are using the absolutely most hated freak show in the demonrat lineup to bring this against the conservative cred backing "Ted Cruz for President"!
I must admit, I'm impressed. The psychology and technique being used here is something to see.
I need to dig out my Sun Tzu and see if I can find it in there.
Anywho...if the above take on things is true, the look on his face in that picture is perfect.
Great post!
Oh almost forgot. If this suit gets legs we’ll have the TRUST the Supreme Court just as we trusted it on gay marriage and Obamacare which didn’t work out so well. Me? I don’t want to trust my future to the Supreme Court.
I’m with you on that one.
You can count on them doing that 100 out of 100 times.
Pray that Grayson wins the rat Senate nomination, easy GOP HOLD.
Did Trump do this to inoculate Cruz as a running mate? Part of the VP vetting process?
Trump is sneaky. He knows the answer before he starts asking the question. It is completely like Trump to trick the media into this frenzy to make sure it’s all clear by the VP pick time. If by some chance Cruz doesn’t make the scrutiny, he still is on top.
At sometime in the future I expect to flip and say, since Cruz constitutionally qualified, and picks him. The media did all the work and have just backed themselves into a corner. I love it when they hate Trump so much that they would even side with Cruz to prove Trump wrong.
They are obviously plants from the left who do anything to keep the White House
Grayson is doing it because he’s an asshole.
BTTT
It is not Trump’s job to clear this up for Cruz. It is Ted’s job to clear it up.
He can produce his CRBA (Citizen Record of Birth Abroad) to settle it. It would prove his mother was still a US citizen at Ted’s birth.
My youngest son was born in Okinawa when my husband was stationed there in the Air Force.
Even though his birth was at an Army hospital we were required to record his birth with the US Embassy. His CRBA served as his birth certificate and was the only thing issued to us as a birth certificate.
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