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Yes, Ted Cruz Can be President
Cato Institute ^ | August 26, 2013 | Ilya Shapiro

Posted on 08/26/2013 1:51:55 PM PDT by SoConPubbie

This article appeared on Daily Caller on August 26, 2013.

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.”


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: cruz; cruz2016; naturalborncitizen; piedpiper; strawman; tedcruz; texas
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To: SoConPubbie
Thank you for that post.

It's the best explanation of the law surrounding this conundrum known as "natural born" citizen. Too many people want to turn it into some super-special, family-been-here-since-the-Mayflower condition.

But it's just what the author says: born a U.S. citizen. Didn't have to be naturalized. I hope we get this understanding out before primary time comes along. We'll have enough intra-party ugliness to contend with.

41 posted on 08/26/2013 2:37:49 PM PDT by BfloGuy (People who know what theyÂ’re talking about donÂ’t need PowerPoint.)
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To: CityCenter

No, sorry but that does not sound correct.
Both parents’ citizenships at time of their baby’s birth are germane. In fact, it was the FATHER’s citizenship that carried the day back in the 1700’s (since the Mother’s citizenship was generally deemed to be conformed to the Father’s).
Best regards,


42 posted on 08/26/2013 2:38:21 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: SoConPubbie

Ted Cruz will be getting 100% of the vote from my family guaranteed, we pay no attention to the birther crap any more.


43 posted on 08/26/2013 2:39:01 PM PDT by Reddon
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To: faithhopecharity
Sorry (sincerely sorry) but the good Senator “Ted” Cruz’s daddy was not an American citizen when “Ted” was born.

And that means nothing. Where did you get the idea that both parents had to be citizens? It just is not the case. That Cruz was a citizen at birth with his mother's having satisfied the above conditions is enough.

Please cite the law that requires both parent to be citizens.

44 posted on 08/26/2013 2:39:42 PM PDT by BfloGuy (People who know what theyÂ’re talking about donÂ’t need PowerPoint.)
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To: SoConPubbie

“having been unable to find any proof that President Obama was born outside the United States”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Neither is there any proof that he was born INSIDE the United States of America, his so-called birth certificate is a digital prevarication. The burden should have been on him to prove he WAS born INSIDE the country.


45 posted on 08/26/2013 2:40:09 PM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: Brown Deer

Apparently, you have know idea what happened after that.


46 posted on 08/26/2013 2:40:37 PM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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To: RipSawyer

There is no proof obama was ever born at all.


47 posted on 08/26/2013 2:41:14 PM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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To: CityCenter

ps:
I really like Senator Cruz.
I am only saying that he could be our Achilles’ heel.. the leftist mass media complex would crucify him if we nominated him.

(And they would continue to gloss over his predecessor’s problem... you know, “what difference does that make now, anyway!?”)

I like Cruz a lot. Can we make him Majority Leader in the Senate and find a clearly-eligible Cruz-style candidate for the Presidential nomination, perhaps?


48 posted on 08/26/2013 2:43:09 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: faithhopecharity
Both parents’ citizenships at time of their baby’s birth are germane.

Riddle me this. If you can establish who Barack 0bama's father was, what was his citizenship at the time of BHO's birth? Take your time.

49 posted on 08/26/2013 2:44:18 PM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: faithhopecharity
He's clearly eligible except to birther idiots, and there aren't many of them.

/johnny

50 posted on 08/26/2013 2:44:42 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Lakeshark

“This Thread’s For You” ping!


51 posted on 08/26/2013 2:44:54 PM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: RIghtwardHo

That’s a terrible reason to do wrong.
As someone here has pointed out, it’s very dangerous to destroy the law for convenience because the precedence can be used against us. Think about it.


52 posted on 08/26/2013 2:46:47 PM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Brown Deer

“...Ted’s father,...”

So....he’s ineligible because of the sins of his father?? A guy who, for all intents and purposes has been an exemplary American for almost all of his life?

C’mon... A LOT of people believed in Castro before they realized he was communist piece of sh*t.


53 posted on 08/26/2013 2:49:38 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends




Senator Cruz ROCKS!



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54 posted on 08/26/2013 2:50:59 PM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: Servant of the Cross

It doesn't get any better than this.........Wait! Wait! Wrong beer commercial.......

55 posted on 08/26/2013 2:51:14 PM PDT by Lakeshark (KILL THE BILL! CALL. FAX. WRITE)
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To: SoConPubbie

“I don’t really like jumping on bandwagons too quickly, Rubio, Ryan, sometimes they abandon Conservatives on big issues. That being said I like Ted Cruz and at this time find no one better. I too am disturbed about citizenship but it’s not my job or within my power to declare him elgible or inelgible and if the powers that be declare him elgible and he’s on the ballot I’ll support and vote for him. Again we can thank democrats for elgibility standards being clouded.”

I previously posted this comment and I see nothing here to change my opinion.


56 posted on 08/26/2013 2:55:12 PM PDT by duffee (NO poll tax, NO tax on firearms, ammunition or gun safes. NO gun free zones.)
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To: SoConPubbie

Ted Cruz is the real deal. He’s transcendent, unlike Obama, who’s a man of the times for the times. Cruz is the true antidote; an antitoxin for a body politic that’s really sick. Enough of Obama and his leeches.


57 posted on 08/26/2013 2:56:45 PM PDT by donaldo
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To: SoConPubbie
Another idiot educated beyond his intelligence!

Here's the nub, Ilya:

AMEND THE CONSTITUTION:

Strike the term "natural born" from the ONLY PLACE IT APPEARS to allow any citizen the privilege of running for the Office of President.

Until you do that Cruz and those like him will never qualify.

58 posted on 08/26/2013 2:57:26 PM PDT by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: NFHale; Brown Deer

Cruz’s father’s only “sin” was fighting for freedom in Cuba.

He was old enough that his fight began at a young age against the dictator Bautista. He went to prison and was beaten and suffered much. He came to America to find a free land, opportunity, worked as a dishwasher in Austin, TX for 50 cents/hr 7 days/week. Put himself through UT, started his own business. Eventually became a church pastor. He is a great, inspirational speaker and he’s Ted’s hero.

Rafael Cruz despises Communists and Communism. He will fight tyranny whether Bautista’s kind or Castro’s kind, ‘til his last breath.

Somebody, anybody, tell me what his “sins” were, again??


59 posted on 08/26/2013 2:58:17 PM PDT by txrangerette ("...hold to the truth; speak without fear." - Glenn Beck)
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To: brityank

Wanna bet?


60 posted on 08/26/2013 2:59:03 PM PDT by txrangerette ("...hold to the truth; speak without fear." - Glenn Beck)
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