Isn't it fascinating that whomever wants to help those who might still harbor respect for the Constitution float one naturalized citizen after another - Jindal, Rubio, Cruz? Of course Jim Carville only wants to help Republicans chose a suitable opponent for Hillary, just as they chose the non natural born citizen McCain, whose lack of eligibility they exposed so thoroughly beginning before his 2000 attempt at the presidency. They protected McCain so no Republican would dare vet Obama, who even told us honestly and correctly that he is not a natural born citizen. Cruz, like Obama, is saying that he will leave his eligibility up to the public. Cruz is saying that The Constitution is irrelevant. Let the people, the media, the SEIU counting our votes, make the decision. Then we assume he is being honest should he have the chance to swear he will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution? Hillary is a natural born citizen, and undoubtedly use Cruz' ineligibility should it be a close election.
For those new to the Constitution, and/or the Supreme Court, one of twenty or so clarifications, since the Constitution explicitly does not include definitions is the precedent setting case Minor v. Happersett, 88 US 162 (1875):
“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.”
(Chief Justice Waite used the seemingly awkward construction, citing "citizens" because that was necessary to his case. The Constitution only defined natural born citizens, and Waite had already asserted that Virginia Minor was a citizen because she was a natural born citizen. An Uniform Rule for who were citizens came in the 14th Amendment, and Waite needed her status before the 14th Amendment to prove his case. He resolves the ancient term, dating to Greek and Roman law, "Natives" as equivalent to "natural born citizen", and affirms the common-law definition.) There are many who believe they are wiser than our framers, who required an amendment or constitutional convention to change a provision of the Constitution. The last half hearted try - there were 8 amendments attempted between 2002 and 2007 - was by Obama and his campaign chair Clare McCaskill, Senate Bill 2678, Feb. 2008, , the ‘‘Children of Military Families Natural Born Citizen Act’’. It was intended to imply that John McCain was a natural born citizen, and failed to pass out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Either we honor and protect the Constitution, or realize that every provision is up for grabs. The 1st and 2nd Amendments are being attacked with intent, and viciously, with all the resources oil, and crony capitalism, and unionized government can cough up. We will get what we respect enough to deserve, and may have to fight for it again once our freedoms are gone.
No, it does not equate native and natural born citizens as the same. It states that both type of citizens are distinguished from Aliens or Foreigners.