Under current law Cruz is considered a citizen at birth. They don’t use the term ‘natural born citizen’. However, without ever having said so in current law, it appears they mean that citizen at birth to be equal to natural born citizen. So be it. As you say, Congress is given the power to legislate these things.
I do think that a state can challenge Cruz’s status, and my gut tells me another candidate would also have standing to do so. They would have to do so BEFORE any election, because I agree with you that no one is going to try to overturn an election. I doubt the electoral college would go there, but the truth is that they are a group of delegations from each of our states anyway.
So ultimately this really does fall back on different states and it falls back on them right now before we get to November’s election. If ANY state would challenge it, I would expect it to be California. They are the largest with the most electoral college votes.
No. SCOTUS rhetoric and legislative history is pretty clear that all citizenship to those born abroad is a form of naturalization. There is case law that says so.
Popular legal analysis, including that published in law review (Katyal/Clement, and several others) doesn't cite those references, and can't if it wants to sustain the illusion that the question is unsettled, or settled in favor of Cruz.
Cruz has been certified qualified in all the election papers, and that is enough to allow the election to proceed.
I can't imagine any court or Congress "coming clean" at this stage of the game. Cruz is deemed NBC, and the actual fact of the matter is legally irrelevant except as a point of academic curiosity. The uncertainty will erode some votes from his column, but not very many.
You do not have to be eligible to run for President. The citizens of the state’s are not electing either a candidate in the primary or the president in the general. They are giving to one person the right to send delegates to the convention or the electoral college.
In the past a lot of candidates ran as “favorite son” candidates with no intention of serving as president, but instead wishing to sway the election to favor their interests in supporting a nominee who did not get a majority going in.
The election of President does not occur until the electoral college has cast their votes and it is certified by congress. Up until they moment the question of eligibility is irrelevant. It is up to the electors and congress to make that determination. After Congress has certified the election, thereby declaring that the president elect is eligible and the election results are correct, the only way to remove the president is by impeachment. The courts have no standing before the election is certified and no jursdiction after.