1st United States Congress, 21-26 Senators and 59-65 Representatives
As Hans von Spakovsky wrote in his Commentary "An Un-Naturally Born Non-Controversy":
- ... The Constitution, federal law, and the historical understanding of the Framers, as well as prior British legal traditions and law, all support this view.
In a recent article in the Harvard Law Review, two former U.S. Solicitor Generals, Paul Clement (who served under President George W. Bush) and Neal Katyal (who served under President Barack Obama) stated:
All the sources routinely used to interpret the Constitution confirm that the phrase “natural born Citizen” has a specific meaning:
- namely, someone who was a U.S. citizen at birth
with no need to go through a naturalization proceeding at some later time.
- subject to certain residency requirements on the parents,
Thus, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would not be eligible to run for president
- because the Austrian native had to go through the naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen.
Certainly the Framers of the Constitution held this view of “natural born” citizen.
They had a deep understanding of British common law and applied its precepts, particularly as explained in Blackstone’s Commentaries, throughout the Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Alabama (1888) recognized that
- “the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States is necessarily influenced by the fact that
- its provisions are framed in the language of the English common law,
and are to be read in the light of its history.”
Senator Cruz meets all three qualifications in the Constitution to be the president of the United States if the American people make that choice.
One of those precepts of British law was
- that children born to British citizens anywhere in the world,
- even outside the dominions of the British Empire,
who owed their allegiance to the Crown.
The First Congress, which included many of the Framers of the Constitution, codified this view of a natural born citizen.
A mere three years after the Constitution was drafted, they passed the Naturalization Act of 1790,
which specified that the children of U.S. citizens born
- “out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens.”
It contains a list of all individuals who are considered “nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.”
Paragraph (g) includes:
A person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien,
and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions
for a period or periods totaling not less than five years,
- at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years.
Ted Cruz was born in Canada in 1970;
his mother, who was a U.S. citizen by birth from Delaware, was in her 30s at the time.
She met Cruz’s father, who was born in Cuba, as a student at Rice University.
These facts show that
- Cruz’s family background clearly meets the standard set out in the federal statute for being a natural born citizen who did not have to go through any naturalization process to become a citizen.;
and Governor George Romney, who was born in Mexico.
The bottom line is that Senator Cruz meets all three qualifications in the Constitution to be the president of the United States if the American people make that choice.
The same is true of my wife, who was born in Manila.
- Her father, whose family had been in America since shortly after the Pilgrims got to Massachusetts,
was temporarily working abroad for an American company—just like Ted Cruz’s father.
My wife is not likely to run for president,
but there is no question that she—like Ted Cruz, Barry Goldwater, George Romney, and John McCain—is eligible to be president
and to swear an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Hans A. von Spakovsky is a a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department lawyer.
He is the coauthor of “Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk”(Encounter 2012)
and “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” (HarperCollins/Broadside 2014).
The Naturalization Act of 1790, let's read it , too ( even though it DOES NOT APPLY) !
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled,
- That any Alien being a free white person,
- who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years,
- wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least,
- he is a person of good character,
and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law
- to support the Constitution of the United States,
and the Clerk of such Court shall record such Application, and the proceedings thereon;
and thereupon such person shall be considered as a Citizen of the United States.
And the children of such person so naturalized,
- dwelling within the United States,
being under the age of twenty one years at the time of such naturalization,
And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States,
- shall be considered as natural born Citizens:
- the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States:
- no person heretofore proscribed by any States, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid,
- except by an Act of the Legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed.