Trump supporters file 'birther' lawsuit against Cruz in federal court

The Hill ^ | 02/12/2016 | Bradford Richardson

[GIdget2004]

Donald Trump supporters have filed a lawsuit challenging the eligibility of one of his primary rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), to run for president.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 3 at a district court in Alabama, seeks a judgment "declaring that Rafael Edward Cruz is ineligible to qualify/run/seek and be elected to the Office of the President of the United States of America" due to his Canadian birth. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother.

The five plaintiffs — Sebastian Green, Shannon Duncan, Kathryn Spears, Kyle Spears and Jerry Parker — are all backing Trump in the Republican primary, according to AL.com.

[EternalVigilance]

I disagree.

[grania]

Get it settled one way or the other

It's one of those things that began to bother me about Cruz. He kept saying he's eligible because he knows he is. You'd think he'd want it settled, once and for all, because there are those who aren't as confident about that as he is.

As long as it isn't settled, all it's going to take if he moves forward is that the dems find a friendly judge.

[Yosemitest]

Yes, Ted Cruz Can be President
August 26, 2013., by Ilya Shapiro

As we head into a potential government shutdown over the funding of Obamacare, the iconoclastic junior senator from Texas - - love him or hate him - - continues to stride across the national stage.
With his presidential aspirations as big as everything in his home state, by now many know what has never been a secret:
Ted Cruz was born in Canada.

(Full disclosure: I'm Canadian myself, with a green card.
Also, Cruz has been a friend since his days representing Texas before the Supreme Court.)

But does that mean that Cruz's presidential ambitions are gummed up with maple syrup
or stuck in snowdrifts altogether different from those plaguing the Iowa caucuses?
Are the birthers now hoist on their own petards,
having been unable to find any proof that President Obama was born outside the United States
but forcing their comrade-in-boots to disqualify himself by releasing his Alberta birth certificate?

No, actually, and it's not even that complicated; you just have to look up the right law.
It boils down to whether Cruz is a "natural born citizen" of the United States,
the only class of people constitutionally eligible for the presidency.
(The Founding Fathers didn't want their newly independent nation to be taken over by foreigners on the sly.)

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.

So the one remaining question is
whether Ted Cruz was a citizen at birth.
That's an easy one.
The Nationality Act of 1940 outlines which children become "nationals and citizens of the United States at birth."
In addition to those who are born in the United States or born outside the country to parents who were both citizens - -
or, interestingly, found in the United States without parents and no proof of birth elsewhere - -
citizenship goes to babies born to one American parent who has spent a certain number of years here.

That single-parent requirement has been amended several times, but under the law in effect between 1952 and 1986 - - Cruz was born in 1970 - -
someone must have a citizen parent who resided in the United States for at least 10 years,
including five after the age of 14, in order to be considered a natural-born citizen.
Cruz's mother, Eleanor Darragh, was born in Delaware, lived most of her life in the United States, and gave birth to little Rafael Edward Cruz in her 30s. Q.E.D.

So why all the brouhaha about where Obama was born, given that there's no dispute that his mother, Ann Dunham, was a citizen?
Because his mother was 18 when she gave birth to the future president in 1961
and so couldn't have met the 5-year-post-age-14 residency requirement.
Had Obama been born a year later, it wouldn't have mattered whether that birth took place in
Hawaii,
Kenya,
Indonesia,
or anywhere else.
(For those born since 1986, by the way,
the single citizen parent must have only resided here for five years,
at least two of which must be after the age of 14.)

In short, it may be politically advantageous for Ted Cruz to renounce his Canadian citizenship before making a run at the White House,
but his eligibility for that office shouldn't be in doubt.
As Tribe and Olson said about McCain - -
and could've said about
Obama,
or the Mexico-born George Romney,
or the Arizona-territory-born Barry Goldwater
- - Cruz "is certainly NOT the hypothetical 'foreigner'
who John Jay and George Washington were concerned might usurp the role of Commander in Chief."

[GeronL]

can’t win at the ballot box?

[truth_seeker]

One thing is certain.

Should it even get considered, there will be no precedent cited for a President born outside the US, for there have been none.

Repeat: there is no legal precedent for a President that was born outside the US.

[biff]

No standing, Trump might be able to have it though.

[Forty-Niner]

It didn’t work on Obama because the questions arose post election and inauguration after the Congress had ample time to question Obama’s eligibility.

Thank the RNC for Obama slipping through.

Cruz will not be so lucky. Born in Canada to a Canadian father does not a Natural Born US Citizen make.

In the canine world he’d be a mutt at best.......

NBC is a pure US citizen pedigree......Sorry, Cruz doesn’t have it!

[Cboldt]

If I was you, I would not go through with a suit, unless you can emotionally distance yourself from it. Courts are ugly places, full of evil spirits. Sometimes one has to go to court, but nobody except the soulless comes out intact. Even the winners lose.

[grania]

Wouldn’t voters have the injury of possibly having the Republican nominee being ineligible? Thus, all those voters are being denied our right to vote.

[CyberAnt]

In four years, I don’t see how America survives w/o Cruz as part of the admin.

So .. I guess that’s okay with you if the dems destroy America while Cruz waits 4 years ..????

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Accepted.

Keep us updated, please.

[smoothsailing]

They both need to pipe down with the vitriol, no doubt about it. It’s getting to where you can’t tell one jackass from another.

[CityCenter]

Will be thrown out quickly.

[fireman15]

Nobody knew Castro was a communist until he announced it one day. The US loved him up till then.

Uhm, Yeah right. That is the ticket. I guess joining up with Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Mexico in 1955 wasn't a clue to anyone?

[ichabod1]

Well, after the last fiasco it’s no surprise people would be more concerned about it. This isn’t about whether we think he’s loyal, but whether he could get disqualified out from under us leaving us with one of the communists at the last minute.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Yes...yes there is.

[Amity]

I keep hoping Carson will do it if he doesn’t do well in South Carolina. He doesn’t seem to enjoy campaigning anyhow, and the court case would keep him in the news, which seems to be his current goal.

Although I also wonder if he’s living in some kind of bubble being fed nonsense by his campaign managers. He was saying that he didn’t do as well in Iowa as the polls indicated he would, which is a crazy claim and easily refuted. Maybe he’s not watching or reading the news and letting them filter it to him, in which case who knows what’ll happen.

[hoosiermama]

Trump has standing and is treatening to sue. He will not be alone

[Bob434]

While a child is a minor, their allegiance is the same as their parent’s it descends from their parent- when the child comes of age, they can choose their own allegiance (expatriate themselves through a process) if they so choose to or remain a US citizen, but until then their allegiance is that of their us sovereign parent

Some folks make the claim that if a person has to apply for a CRBA in order to travel out of the country, then they can’t be a citizen- and must be naturalized- however that is not what the usicis site says on the matter- they state

[[ D. Application for Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600)

A person born abroad who acquires U.S. citizenship at birth is not required to file an Application for Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600). A person who seeks documentation of such status, however, must submit an application to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship from USCIS.]]

It further states that just because someone doesn’t file for CoC, (form N-600) doesn’t mean they aren’t a full citizen, it infact states that they do not have to go through a naturalization process

[[A person born abroad who acquires a U.S. citizenship at birth is not required to file an Application for Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600). A person who seeks documentation of such status, however, must submit an application to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship from USCIS. A person may also apply for a U.S. Passport with the Department of State to serve as evidence of his or her U.S. citizenship.

A person who is at least 18 years of age may submit the Application for Certificate of Citizenship on his or her own behalf. If the application is for a child who has not reached 18 years of age, the child’s U.S. citizen parent or legal guardian must submit the application.]]

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH-Chapter3.html

Notice at the end it states it is only to serve as further evidence of citizenship- there is nothing that states that in order to be a citizen, one must have this form

Also, [[In addition, in 2000, Congress granted automatic citizenship to most minor children of American parents who were adopted from abroad; previously such adopted children needed to be naturalized.]]]]

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/citizen.aspx#2

you’ll note that adopted children do not have to be naturalized any longer- (but still people will try to make the argument that previously they had to be, and now they don’t because of a statute, and anytime there is a statute it means it is a process of law, and not natural- in essence, they don’t accept the law as it stands regarding citizenship)

[CyberAnt]

Who said Cruz “sealed his records” .. I’ve never heard him say that .. and I’ve been following his career for years.