The public has been duped, bigtime.
The only reason the issue isn't conclusive, is that SCOTUS could touch the case prospectively (it won't though) and revers 200 years of rock-solid, perfectly consistent precedent; and turn law on its head to rescue Cruz. Maybe it will happen, they found homo marriage in there after 200 years of it not being in there. But there wasn't 200 years of settled law that found homo marriage in there. There is 200 years of precedent that says Cruz is naturalized. Hundreds of cases - no deviation - none. It doesn't get any more settled than that.
FWIW, old-man Romney qualified because he born in a territory that became a state.
And I agree the issue fades right along with Cruz's prospects.
“FWIW, old-man Romney qualified because he born in a territory that became a state.”
You mean Goldwater.
George Romney was born in Mexico, to US citizen parents. Before it became a big issue, he dropped out. But there was an outside legal research opinion, read into the congressional Record that he did NOT qualify—born outside the US, not to diplomats.
That would be the Cruz case, as well. (But it was only an opinion, not a court opinion.)