Posted on 08/14/2013 5:45:12 AM PDT by Perdogg
The Constitution says that only "natural born citizens" are eligible to be president. Is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas eligible, given that he was born in Canada of a U.S. citizen mother and a Cuban immigrant father?
If Cruz runs, 2016 will be the third consecutive election in which there were questions about the right of a major party candidate to serve. Unfortunately, the Framers left few clues about exactly what a "natural born citizen" is; Congress has not used the phrase in citizenship statutes since 1790.
(Excerpt) Read more at news4jax.com ...
I don’t think something that FReepers have been frothing over with 500 post threads for six months is Breaking News.
“I don’t know whether Cruz is constitutionally eligible or not, BUT the media will HAVE to say he is, in the end”
You wanna bet?
This controversy will not go away. Even if Cruz is eligible, many conservatives will still refuse to vote for him because he’s Canadian. And the MSM will be sure to remind everyone of that all the time.
I did not put it in Breaking news, some one else did.
It’s always fun to bump stuff up to Front Page or Breaking News just to see how long it takes the Hammer of the Mods to fall. In this case it wasn’t me either.
Per the article provided, natural born citizenship requires:
1. physical birth on U.S. legal soil,
2. BOTH parents citizenship
3. birth after 1789 or whenever the Constitution was ratified
As Cruz was born in Canada, he fails.
As Cruz’s father was not a citizen, but a Cuban, he fails.
It’d be fun to watch the media explain this. Not that they will. Or that anybody would pay attention.
"Presidential office requires a natural-born citizen if the child was not born to two U.S. citizen parents, which of course is what exempts John McCain though he was born in the Panama Canal. US Law very clearly stipulates: “.If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.” Barack Obama’s father was not a U.S. citizen and Obama’s mother was only 18 when Obama was born, which means though she had been a U.S. citizen for 10 years, (or citizen perhaps because of Hawai’i being a territory) the mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years **prior to** Barack Obama’s birth, but *after* age 16. It doesn't matter *after*."
Since his passports disappeared and his school records, we don't know if his stepfather adopted him and made him an Indonesian citizen and if he went to college as a foreign student.
At first I was against Cruz running, (since there is a question on his natural-born status) but the way the Dems have flagrantly broken laws over and over again, and how the Supreme Court allowed the unconstitutional Obamacare to stand by calling it a tax, I say he should go for it. I'd like to see a ruling before it gets too far down the line on Ted Cruz. Maybe the Tea Party needs to have someone take it to court now, so that we can get an early ruling on his eligibility.
I am with you Obadiah. Cruz is the best man for the job..bar NONE. His mother born and raised in Delaware, his father became a citizen in the 50’s and entered the US legally.
Cruz is a constitutional lawyer and would bet he knows he is eligible
Maybe it was because after the Founding generation had gone through the one-time special Naturalization Act where they obtained the privileges and immunities OF natural-born Citizens, the federal government no longer had any authority concerning it!
Exactly my feelings!
re: “This controversy will not go away. Even if Cruz is eligible, many conservatives will still refuse to vote for him because he’s Canadian. And the MSM will be sure to remind everyone of that all the time.”
Good point.
bookmark
No, his father didn't become a citizen until 2005
sorry but natural born needs only one parent (the mom) to be a citizen.
This is because if Canada and the USA both required both parents to be citizens, then Cruz would be a citizen of no country on earth, would have no place to live and the baby would have to be dumped in the trash, ocean or whereever.
The two parent rule should be illegal due to pure stupidity.
And I say “preferably the mom” because before 1980, you only have the mom’s word for it on who the dad is and I’m sure the founding fathers were aware of adultery and may have done some of their own screwing around.
the final problem with the two parent rule is suppose a citizen mom is pregnant with a sperm donor of unknown origin (either via sperm bank or one night stand), then what ?
furthermore, who do you count as the father, the father who raised the child from birth or the biological father.
next is the question of do the parents need to be citizens at conception or at the day the baby pops out of the womb.
Not necessarily.
The hypocritical HillBots and OBots and their loud Main Stream Media will scream Obama is - jus soli, jus soli, jus soli makes NBC - and Cruz is not.
Well I guess the ron paul write-in gang can write him in again to assist crowning Queen Hiltery.
And his views on citizenship were voted down almost unanimously - 36 to 1 - by our first House of Representatives, including the Father of the Constitution, James Madison.
And New Jersey Realist is right. Apuzzo is no Constitutional lawyer, and he's never won even one single case on his Constitutional claims.
Yes, Ted Cruz is Constitutionally eligible to be President - according to the top authorities of the early United States who knew exactly what the Founding Fathers meant by "natural born citizen." And all the statements that he isn't need to stop.
"It is not necessary that a man should be born in this country, to be 'a natural born citizen.' It is only requisite that he should be a citizen by birth, and that is the case with all the children of citizens who have ever resided in this country, though born in a foreign country."
- James Bayard, A Brief Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (1833)
Bayard's exposition of the Constitution was read and approved by the Great Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall, by the legendary Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, and by the famous Chancellor James Kent, as well as other legal experts of the early United States.
Not one single person ever said he was wrong about his understanding of what "natural born citizen" meant.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.