Where does the Constitution say a US citizen from birth can’t be president?
The Constitution as a “living document” would allow any US Citizen to be considered “natural born”. The meaning of “natural born citizen” when the Constitution was written means born on the land, or at least of parents who were American citizens. The law at the time was that a women takes on the citizenship of her husband. So under that interpretation, Ted Cruz is a natural-born Canadian.
While Ted’s dad has said that he was a Canadian citizen when Ted was born, we have yet to see a definitive statement from or about whether his mother had also accepted Canadian citizenship. All we have been shown is her birth certificate.
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. It is one or the other, but it can’t be both.
Well, I’m trying to make up my mind and it does make me wonder. Born with dual citizenship, out of the country ... we don’t seem to mind because it’s Canada, but it’s the same status as if he were born in Saudi Arabia to a Saudi man and an American woman. Not sure we’d be quite as comfortable with that. I thought it took both parents being US citizens to convey natural born citizenship ... no question of dual loyalties and all. Of course, it’s clearly not settled.
Just trying to sort it out, and it does give me pause.