Posted on 01/16/2016 7:59:19 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Thursday following FBN's broadcast of the Republican presidential debate, Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe attacked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 97%, one of the participants in last night debate, for his stated on reasoning for his eligibility to run for president of the United States.
According to Tribe, Cruz applies a double standard to his interpretation of the Constitution, to which he deemed Cruz to be a "constitutional opportunist" and a "hypocrite."
"I've done a lot of historical research on it, and so have a lot of other people, and the best evidence seems to be that what they meant in 1788 was something more than just citizen from birth," he said. "They actually meant a citizen whose birth was sort of natural, not in a biological sense but in the sense of connection to the land. The idea was, that it was something that Congress couldn't change, unlike the naturalization process, which Congress has monkeyed around with all the time. I mean, for example, in 1934, the first time it said, you can be a citizen who doesn't need to get naturalized as long as your mom was an American citizen. And that's ultimately the basis on which Cruz has to rely.
The funny thing is, that the kind of guy Cruz is, he's always been this way. When he was my student he was this way. He's always said the Constitution always means the same thing that it meant when it was adopted. That's why he made this funny joke to Trump, you know, saying, the Constitution didn't change since last September. Well, he thinks it didn't change since 1788 when it comes to gays and, you know, women and other things. But when it comes to his own ambition, he's suddenly becomes what he accuses me of being, and it's a pretty true accusation, a judicial activist. That's not the guy he is normally."
"He's being a constitutional opportunist, a hypocrite," Tribe continued. "It's sad, because he makes light of it, but it is a genuine open question, and there's no way of getting around it. Like if he's the nominee, it won the be hard to imagine some secretary of state somewhere simply refusing to put him on the ballot on the ground that that secretary of state is also an originalist and thinks, if you weren't born on the land of the United States, then you just can't run. At that point, somebody would have to sue them, whether it's Ted Cruz himself as the nominee, if that's what we've got, or the Republican National Committee. There's no way to avoid an issue like that going to the Supreme Court. And the irony is, the liberals on the court, assuming they all voted according to principle, as opposed to politics. It isn't always that way, the liberals on the court, the activists would go with Cruz, and the originalists if they were true to their position like Scalia, would vote against him."
His far-left, Democratic socialist former professor? That one? Since when do people here care what such a one says about a conservative?
Is Larry Tribe the kind of lawyer Trump wants to place on our federal courts? He seems to admire him so much.
Lawrence Vladimir Tribe? Seriously?
Slander!!! He must be senile.
Cruz is a constitutional expert - I doubt there are many better and certainly not a falling over the left coast left-progressive.
This has now become a war to the death. Cruz is being prepared for political Burial. If you are one of the few Cruz people ?,are you going to vote for Gore for president?
Someone had to bring this angle up :-)
Between a rock and a hard place if he keeps on hammering on being a Constitutional fundamentalist but claims an exception here.
There’s another angle and I’d suggest it to Cruz. Ease up on the Constitution thumping; start to explain how faith in God formed the framework that cast the Constitution, as crude and flawed as it was (and he can say crude and flawed with utter historical backing — who today says it was NOT a mistake — and a very cheeky one before God — to have chattel slavery?) Now he has reframed the issue and it is less likely to come rolling back upon him.
Lawrence Tribe is a Clinton sickofan. No wonder Trump likes him, premonitions of the kind of people he will hire for his cabinet?
“Few” you say? Then how is he leading in the important state of Iowa, in California and elsewhere?
Libby, this is people-idolatry. It goes nowhere. You might learn some day.
Quite telling how Trump and his supporters without compunction cite a leftist Harvard professor to make a point.
So liberal bot licker does not like Cruz? Cue the Inspector Renault
I never knew so many originalists were in politics.
He’s going to figure prominently to the GOPe and to the entire Democrat party if this goes forward with Cruz in the lead. Trump is noticing strategic facts on the ground and they don’t go away even if we stick fingers in our ears and go LA LA LA.
He is not leading in Iowa. He is losing by 4. I don’t give a tinker’s damn about califonicate.
About last June 16th, unfortunately.
Well, if Cruz is not natural born in letter he IS in spirit.
Contrast that with Obama who, though he may (???) be natural born in letter, is certainly not in spirit!
Liberals defend liberals.
Either Ted Cruz is a original-intent Constitutionalist and therefore ineligible to be President or he is a living-document Constitutionalist and eligible to be President.
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