[Tau Food]

I don't view this issue as being as complicated as you are making it. I view the Constitutional eligibility standards (age, residency and NBC) as instructions that electors are to employ in selecting our presidents. The text of the Constitution does not provide any precise definition for the term natural born citizen. The meaning is intrinsically uncertain and permits of a range of reasonable, acceptable definitions. I agree with Justice Scalia (see his opinion in the Heller case) that when interpreting terms in the Constitution, we should attempt to find what might have been the original understanding of "ordinary citizens" (not just society's elite) living in the founding generation.

Applying those standards, I do not feel compelled to look to eighteenth century philosophers like Vattel for special little meanings. Frankly, I don't think more than a few of the "ordinary citizens' at that time had ever heard of Vattel or the little book he wrote in French. Nor do I feel compelled to assume that most "ordinary citizens" of that generation thought it crucial that one parent or two parents or grandparents be citizens at the time of the candidate's birth. I suspect that most folks back then would have given a more natural construction to the NBC clause, such as "citizen at birth."

So, in my view, "citizen at birth" is a permissible construction for the NBC clause. I recognize that other folks might choose other definitions, but I also recognize that they arrive at their special little meanings by choice and not by compulsion. The term is inherently uncertain in meaning and I accept that reality.

Ted Cruz - 2016

[Tau Food]

I should add that, when coupled with the residence clause, all of the definitions that I have seen proposed for the NBC clause are faithful to the manifest purpose of these provisions - to ensure that our presidents have a close political connection to the United States by heritage (NBC) and by experience (residence). In that sense, all of these proposed definitions (including citizen at birth) are adequate.

We must comply with the Constitution, but we need to recognize that here is a cost incident to unnecessarily shrinking the pool of candidates, particularly for reasons that are really just partisan (and not constitutional) in nature.

Ted Cruz - 2016

[Uncle Chip]

It wasn’t an essay question. It was 9 simple questions.

I didn’t ask for a baloney sandwich or your excuses for not taking the test.

If you knew what you were talking about you could take the test and pass it.

Time is up — FAIL

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

My understanding is that in order to be an NBC like Obama you have to have a forged birth certificate. Ted is lacking in that most important element.